Napper

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who often indulges in brief sleeping intervals during the day engages in light slumber or dozes off at various times
2. An individual who frequently partakes in short periods of sleep throughout the day may be characterized by engaging in light dozing or resting intermittently
3. A person who habitually rests by sleeping briefly during the day

Etymology: "Napper" is about as plain as English coinages get: the noun "nap" with the agent suffix "-er" attached, so a napper is simply one who naps. The "nap" it builds on is the older word for a brief sleep, and the suffix "-er" is the same ending found in "baker" or "writer," used to name a person who habitually does the thing named by the base word. The interest here lies less in the history than in the word's narrow use. The base "nap" is an ordinary, long-established English word, so the coinage needed no special invention, and "napper" follows the pattern that produces many everyday nouns from verbs and nouns alike. Its meaning, a person who dozes intermittently through the day, is simply the literal sense of the parts put together.

Synonyms: sleeper, dozer, slumberer, dreamer, resting person

Antonyms: insomniac, wakeful person, alert person