Swappers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A group of individuals who engage in exchanging items, such as goods or services, often among themselves
2. People participating in the act of trading possessions with one another, often in a cooperative manner
3. Individuals involved in the practice of swapping objects or commodities in a reciprocal arrangement

Etymology: "Swappers" is the plural of "swapper," a straightforward formation: the verb "swap" with the agent suffix "-er," meaning one who swaps. The verb "swap" appeared in English in the 16th century, and the suffix arrived through a long chain. It descends from Latin "-arius," which passed through Old French "-ier" and Middle English "-er," while the Old English "-ere" ran in parallel, so the ending in "swapper" is a native English survival of an ancient Latin agent suffix. The plural form simply adds "-s" to mark more than one person. A group of "swappers" is therefore literally a crowd of people who swap, and the word has no separate history of its own beyond that of its parts.

Synonyms: exchangers, traders, barterers

Antonyms: hoarders, keepers