Raper

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A plant with yellow flowers grown for its oily seeds used in cooking and animal feed ; a person who forces another into sexual intercourse
2. A crop with small seeds rich in oil, widely used in agriculture ; someone who commits the crime of sexual assault
3. A fast-growing plant valued for its seed oil and meal ; an individual who perpetrates sexual violence against another person

Etymology: The word is a plain formation: the verb "rape" with the agent suffix "-er," which forms nouns for a person who performs an action. That suffix has a long pedigree. It descends from the Latin "-arius," which passed through Old French "-ier" into Middle English "-er," while English had its own parallel suffix, Old English "-ere," that merged into the same ending. So the ending was reinforced by two routes. The base verb "rape" is the more complicated part. Its older senses centred on seizing or carrying off, a meaning that traces back to Latin "rapere," "to seize." The modern sense of sexual violence developed from that older sense of forcible taking, and the noun formed on it inherits the same range of meaning.

Synonyms: rapist