Treater

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who deals with, handles or behaves toward someone or something in a particular manner ; a person or device that applies a process to a substance or material ; a practitioner who gives medical care or remedies to patients
2. Someone who conducts themselves toward others in a certain way ; an agent or apparatus that subjects a material to a chemical or physical process ; a clinician who administers therapy or healing to sick people
3. One who manages or acts toward another in a given fashion ; something that applies a treatment process to materials ; a healer who tends to the ailments of patients

Etymology: The word "treater" is a plain formation: the verb "treat" with the agent suffix "-er", meaning one who treats. The suffix has a longer history than the verb it attaches to. It descends from Latin "-arius", which marked a person connected with a job or activity, and reached English by two routes. One ran through Old French "-ier" into Middle English "-er", and the other was inherited from Proto-Germanic "-ārijaz" through Old English "-ere", so the same ending arrived in English twice and fused into one productive suffix. The verb "treat" comes from Old French "traiter", itself from Latin "tractare", meaning to handle or manage. Its sense of negotiating or entertaining guests, and later of providing medical care, grew out of that basic idea of handling a matter or a person. A treater, then, is someone who handles or manages a thing, whether a patient, a guest, or a substance being processed.

Synonyms: healer, practitioner