Regainer

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person or thing that gets back possession, control, or a former state after having lost it
2. Someone who recovers something that was taken away or misplaced, or who wins back a lost position
3. An agent that retrieves or reclaims what had previously been surrendered, forfeited, or misplaced

Etymology: "Regainer" is about as plain as English word-building gets: it is "regain" with the agent suffix "-er" added, so it names a person (or thing) that regains something. "Regain" itself came into English from French "regaigner," which combined "re-" (again) with "gaigner," meaning to gain or win. The "gain" in that French verb is the same root that gave English "gain" in the sense of profit or advantage, so the word's core idea is simply winning back what was lost. The suffix does the rest. English has long used "-er" to turn a verb into a noun for the doer of an action, as with "baker" or "teacher," and applying it to "regain" produces a label for whoever takes back possession, ground, or health. Because the formation is transparent, the word needs no special story; its meaning follows directly from its parts.

Synonyms: recoverer, retriever

Antonyms: loser