Plucker

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈplʌkə(ɹ)/

Definitions

1. A person or device that takes away feathers or leaves from something
2. An individual or mechanical device specialized in pulling feathers from birds or leaves from plants
3. One who detaches feathers from poultry or removes foliage manually or with a machine

Etymology: "Plucker" is simply "pluck" with the agent suffix "-er" attached, meaning one who plucks. The suffix has a longer history than the verb: it descends from a Proto-Indo-European ancestor that passed into Proto-Italic and then Latin as "-arius," which marked a person connected with or doing a particular thing. Via Proto-Germanic and Old English "-ere," it became Middle English "-er," the same ending found in words like "baker" and "reader." The verb "pluck" is the older part of the story, and the word's core sense is the simple act of pulling something off. Compounding it with the suffix produced a plain job name, and "plucker" follows that pattern exactly, describing whoever pulls feathers from poultry or strips leaves by hand or machine.

Synonyms: picker, gatherer