Caller

How to spell caller

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce caller

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does caller mean?

1. nounA person who makes a telephone call or pays a visit.

Caller in a sentence

• The radio host thanked the first caller of the morning.

• An unknown caller left a message on the answering machine.

Where does caller come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

The base verb 'call' comes from the Old Norse kalla, meaning 'to cry out, to summon, or to name', which Norse settlers brought into northern and eastern England during the Viking age. It is related to older Germanic and even Celtic roots tied to shouting and naming, and it gradually crowded out competing native words for summoning someone. By adding the agent suffix '-er', English formed 'caller' to mean simply 'one who calls', a pattern it uses for countless other doer nouns. The sense narrowed and broadened over time: a caller could be someone shouting a name, a person paying a social visit, the official who announces moves at a dance or bingo game, and, since the rise of the telephone, the person on the other end of the line. The spelling trap is the doubled 'l': because 'call' ends in two l's, the agent form keeps both, giving the slightly surprising 'caller' rather than 'caler'.

How the word is built

• call (from Old Norse kalla: to cry out, summon)
• -er (agent suffix: one who does the action)