Networker

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An individual who skillfully creates and develops professional relationships with others to facilitate collaboration and resource sharing
2. A person devoted to forming and sustaining connections with peers or industry professionals in order to leverage opportunities and support one another
3. Someone who actively cultivates contacts and alliances in professional settings to achieve shared goals

Etymology: "Networker" is a plain formation: the noun "network" with the agent suffix "-er," which English has used since Old English to mark a person or thing that does something. Here the "network" part is the interesting one. Its first sense was literal. In the 16th century it meant a fabric of crossed threads, like a net, and the idea of a web of interconnected lines or people came later, extending the old image of mesh and knots to anything arranged in a similar pattern. The modern sense of a person building professional contacts follows that same extension. Someone who works a network of connections is, in effect, a person who weaves threads between others, which is why the suffix attaches so naturally to the older meaning of "net" and "work."

Synonyms: connector, collaborator, intermediary, communicator, facilitator

Antonyms: loner, isolator, recluse, hermit, stranger