Siever

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person or machine that passes loose material such as grain, sand or flour through a mesh to separate out the finer or coarser particles
2. Someone or something whose job or function is to sift substances through a sieve so that unwanted pieces are caught and removed
3. The worker or device that strains and sorts granular matter by forcing it through a perforated screen

Etymology: The word "sieve" is the base here, and the ending "-er" does the work of turning it into a noun for a device. "Sieve" itself traces back to Old English "sife," a word for the sifting utensil, which gives the root meaning a plain, physical start: a tool with holes that lets fine material fall through while holding back the coarse. Adding "-er" to a noun that names a tool or device produces a name for the machine that performs that action, so a siever is the mechanical counterpart of the hand sieve. Because the suffix is the familiar agent-forming ending, the word needs no special coinage story. It reads as a straightforward compound of a common English noun and a productive suffix, and its meaning follows directly from both parts.

Synonyms: sifter, strainer