Ringers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A group of individuals participating in a phone or bell ringing event, often performing synchronized activities
2. people engaging in a particular task or activity with skill or expertise
3. individuals playing a prank or deception, such as substitutes in a game or contest

Etymology: "Ringers" is simply the plural of "ringer," and the noun is an ordinary agent formation: the verb "ring," meaning to sound a bell, with the suffix "-er" added to name the person doing the ringing. The bell sense goes back to Middle English, where the word appeared as "ringere," "rynger," or "ryngar," and the root "ring" traces to Old English "hringan" in the sense of making a bell sound. The plural's modern meaning, a group of people taking part in a bell-ringing event, follows directly from that core sense: each person pulling a rope is a ringer, and a team of them is a band of ringers. The same "-er" pattern gives us "bell-ringer," "singer," and "player," all naming someone who performs the action.

Synonyms: bell ringers, callers, notifications, alerts, signals