Peers

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /pɪɹz/

Definitions

1. People of similar age or status who engage in social interactions
2. Individuals who hold comparable positions in a professional or organizational setting
3. People who share a similar age group or social background ; individuals who occupy the same level of authority or status within an organization

Etymology: The word "peers" is the plural of "peer", and it has two quite separate ancestries that happen to have converged in English. The first is a verb meaning "to look closely, gaze," which came into Middle English as "peren" and probably descends from Old English "pȳran." Its relatives are striking: Dutch "pieren" means to examine closely, and English "pore" (as in to pore over a book) and even "blear" belong to the same family of squinting and narrowing the eyes. The noun sense of "peer" is an unrelated word. It came into English from Anglo-Norman "peir" and Old French "per," both from Latin "pār," meaning "equal." That same Latin root gave English "pair" and "par," so the three are doublets, borrowings of one word that entered by different routes. A peer was, at root, simply someone equal to you, and the sense of rank or social standing grew naturally from that idea of equality.

Synonyms: equals, contemporaries, colleagues

Antonyms: subordinates, inferiors