Reviewer

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who examines and offers critical judgment or assessment of a creative work, product, or performance, typically for publication or public consumption
2. An individual who evaluates and provides feedback on various forms of media, such as literature, film, or art, often sharing insights with an audience
3. Someone engaged in analyzing and critiquing products, performances, or artistic endeavors to inform others about their quality and value

Etymology: The word "reviewer" is a plain formation: the noun "review" with the agent suffix "-er," meaning one who performs the action. Its suffix has a longer history than the noun it attaches to. The "-er" ending descends through Old French "-ier" from Latin "-arius," a suffix used to form nouns for people connected with a trade or activity, and through Old English "-ere" it became part of English's native toolkit for naming doers, as in "baker," "writer," and "singer." "Review" itself came into English from Old French "reveue," a noun formed from "revoir," meaning to look at again. The sense of a formal critical assessment of a book or performance is the one that gave rise to "reviewer," so the person who writes such assessments inherited a meaning that began as simply looking something over a second time. The English noun "reviewer," built this way from the existing word "review," is therefore a native-style compound rather than a borrowing.

Synonyms: critic, evaluator