Rollerbladers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. People who perform the activity of skating using skates that have wheels arranged in a single line attached to their shoes
2. Individuals who partake in a recreational or competitive pursuit that involves sliding on inline skates with a series of wheels in line
3. Persons who move on footwear equipped with wheels aligned in a row under the soles

Etymology: "Rollerbladers" is the plural of "rollerblader", a person who skates on rollerblades, the in-line skates whose wheels sit in a single row under the boot. The word is simply the trade name "Rollerblade" with the agent suffix "-er" added to it, so it names someone who does the activity rather than the equipment itself. The suffix has a long ancestry. The "-er" ending descends from Latin "-arius", which English picked up through Old French and Middle English, and which Old English had already used in forms like "-ere". That same suffix sits behind countless English words for people who practise a trade or pastime, from baker to rower. Because the base word is a brand name, the noun carries a little of the company's history with it. The "-er" ending was attached to a proper noun, which is a common route by which trademarks turn into ordinary vocabulary.

Synonyms: inline skaters