Farmer
nounA person who owns or manages land for growing crops or raising livestock.
How to spell farmer
6 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce farmer
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does farmer mean?
- nounA person who owns or manages land for growing crops or raising livestock.
Farmer in a sentence
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The local farmer sells eggs and vegetables at the weekend market.
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Every farmer in the valley relies on the spring rainfall for the harvest.
Where does farmer come from?
Language of origin: Latin
The word farmer comes from the noun 'farm', which entered English through Old French 'ferme' from the medieval Latin 'firma', meaning a fixed payment or a fixed-term lease. The Latin root 'firmus' literally meant 'firm' or 'settled', so the earliest farmers were people who held land under a fixed rent agreement rather than people who tilled the soil. Over the 1300s and 1400s the word shifted from naming a rent collector or leaseholder to naming the person who actually works agricultural land. The agent suffix '-er', a native English ending meaning 'one who does', was added to give us 'farmer', the worker of the farm. That same 'firmus' root still survives in the everyday word 'firm', a reminder that a farm was originally a fixed financial arrangement.
How the word is built
- farm (from medieval Latin firma: fixed payment, lease)
- -er (agent suffix: one who does)
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