Wirer

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who installs or repairs electrical wiring in buildings or equipment ; a trap constructed from wire used to catch animals by entangling them
2. An individual skilled in setting up or maintaining electric cables and circuits ; a device fashioned from wire designed to capture or hold animals
3. Someone who lays out or fixes electrical connections in various settings ; an apparatus made of wire that ensnares animals for capture or control

Etymology: A "wirer" is about as transparent as English compounds get: the agent suffix "-er" attached to "wire." The suffix has a long lineage of its own. It descends from a Proto-Italic ending that passed into Latin as "-arius," which English picked up through Old French "-ier" and Middle English "-er," while the Old English form "-ere" is a separate branch of the same ancestry. The word "wire" itself has a different and older story, but the suffix is what turns a material into a person or a tool. Because "-er" attaches so freely to nouns, English speakers could form "wirer" whenever someone needed a name for the one who worked with wire, with no need for a special coinage. The second sense, a wire trap for catching animals, follows the same logic: the device is named for the material it is made of.

Synonyms: cable installer, electrician