Riveter

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A device used to join metal pieces by driving rivets into them ; a worker who installs rivets to secure materials together
2. A handheld or machine-operated tool for inserting rivets ; an individual specializing in attaching parts using rivets
3. An apparatus designed to fasten components with rivets ; a tradesperson who assembles parts by fixing rivets

Etymology: The word is simply "rivet" plus the agent suffix "-er," which marks a person or thing that performs an action. A riveter, then, is someone or something that rivets. The suffix has a long pedigree: it descends from Latin "-arius," which passed through Old French "-ier" into Middle English "-er," while a parallel line through Proto-Germanic and Old English "-ere" fed into the same ending. English thus ended up with one suffix that reached it by two routes, and that convergence is why the -er ending is so common in words for workers and tools. The base word "rivet" is itself a borrowing from Old French "river," meaning to clinch or fasten the end of a bolt by hammering it flat, and the verb's sense of hammering over the end of a pin is the physical action that the tool and the worker both carry out. Because the metal fastener came first, the tool and the trade were named afterward, following the same pattern that gave English words like "driver" and "stacker."

Synonyms: fastener, connector, joiner, bond, clasp