Brewer

How to spell brewer

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce brewer

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does brewer mean?

1. nounA person or company that makes beer or other fermented drinks.

Brewer in a sentence

• The local brewer won an award for its dark ale.

• Her grandfather worked as a brewer for forty years.

Where does brewer come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word descends from the Old English verb breowan, meaning to make a drink such as ale by steeping, boiling, and fermenting grain. The verb belongs to the native Germanic stock of English and has close relatives in Dutch brouwen and German brauen, all reaching back to a shared root linked to heat and bubbling. The agent noun brewere, literally one who brews, was formed by adding the familiar -er ending that turns a verb into the person who performs it, just as bake gives baker. The same ancient root also surfaces in the words broth and bread, both connected to the idea of cooking with heat. The modern spelling keeps the -ew- cluster of the old verb, which is the small trap, since the sound could tempt a writer toward broo- or brue-.

How the word is built

• brew (from Old English breowan: to make a drink by boiling and fermentation)
• -er (agent suffix: one who does)