Blower

How to spell blower

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce blower

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does blower mean?

1. nounA machine or fan that produces a strong current of air.

Blower in a sentence

• The garden blower cleared the leaves from the driveway in minutes.

• The heating system uses a powerful blower to push warm air through the ducts.

Where does blower come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built on the native English verb 'blow', which descends from the Old English blawan, meaning 'to move air' or 'to send out a current of air'. That verb belongs to a wide family of Germanic words connected with breathing and puffing, and it is distantly related to the Latin flare, 'to blow', which gives us 'inflate' and 'flatulent'. The agent suffix '-er' was added to mark a person or, more often, a machine that performs the action, so a blower is literally 'a thing that blows'. The mechanical sense for a fan or air pump grew up alongside industry in the 1700s and 1800s, when forced air was needed for furnaces and engines. In British usage the word also became cheeky slang for the telephone, from the early speaking tubes through which one quite literally blew to attract attention before talking.

How the word is built

• blow (Old English blawan: to produce a current of air)
• -er (agent/instrument suffix: thing that does the action)