Developer

How to spell developer

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce developer

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does developer mean?

1. nounA person or company that designs and builds something, especially software or applications.
2. nounA person or firm that buys land and builds or improves property on it to sell or let.
3. nounA chemical solution used to make a photographic image appear on exposed film or paper.

Developer in a sentence

• The developer released a patch to fix the login bug.

• The developer bought the old factory site to build flats.

• She poured fresh developer into the tray to process the film.

• Our team hired a senior developer to lead the project.

• Local residents objected to the developer behind the new housing estate.

• The print stayed in the developer until the image grew dark enough.

Where does developer come from?

Language of origin: French

The base verb 'develop' arrived in English in the 1600s from the French developper, an older spelling of developper, which meant literally 'to unwrap' or 'to unfold'. That French verb was built from des-, a prefix carrying the sense of reversal or 'un-', joined to voloper, meaning 'to wrap' or 'to envelop', the same root that gives us 'envelop' and 'envelope'. The original picture, then, is of something tightly wrapped being gradually opened out and revealed, which is exactly how a plot, a photograph, or a piece of land is brought into its finished state. The agent suffix '-er' was added in English to name the person or thing that carries out this unfolding, and the word was later applied to software builders, property firms, and photographic chemicals as each industry borrowed the idea of bringing something latent into full form. The origin of voloper itself is uncertain, possibly from a late Latin or Frankish root, so the deep history is debated even though the French route into English is clear. A useful spelling cue is that the schwa-heavy middle, 'de-VEL-op-er', hides no doubled letters at all, despite how tempting it is to double the p.

How the word is built

• de- (un-, reverse)
• velop (to wrap, from Old French voloper)
• -er (agent noun: one who does)