Wakers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Individuals who rouse others from sleep; participants in a vigil held over a deceased person ; persons responsible for maintaining alertness or supervision during a designated period
2. People who awaken or revive sleepers; attendees at a wake or watch, especially in mourning; those charged with keeping watch or preventing sleep
3. Those who cause others to arise from slumber; persons present at funerary observances or night watches; individuals tasked with guarding or monitoring during waking hours

Etymology: "Wakers" is the plural of "waker," and the noun has two separate lineages that happen to have merged. One traces back to Old English "wacor," meaning "watchful" or "vigilant," which gave Middle English "wakyr." That sense of alert watching is why the plural now covers attendants at a wake or those keeping vigil over the dead or over a sleeper. The other lineage is the later Middle English "wakere," which is simply "wake" plus "-er," and it is the ancestor of the sense of someone or something that rouses others from sleep. Modern German "Wecker" and Dutch "wekker" still mean "alarm clock," literally "waker." The surprise lies deeper. The Old English root is surprisingly related to powerful words far from waking: it is cognate with Sanskrit "vájra," meaning "adamantine" or thunderbolt, and both descend from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "strong, lively." The same root also gave English "vigil," "vigor," and "vegetable," all sharing the sense of lively, watchful vitality.

Synonyms: watchers, observers, guards, lookouts, sentinels

Antonyms: sleepers, nappers, dozers, slumberers, resters