Janitor

How to spell janitor

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce janitor

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does janitor mean?

1. nounA person employed to clean and maintain a building, such as a school or office block.

Janitor in a sentence

• The janitor unlocked the gym before the morning assembly.

• Every classroom was mopped by the janitor after the children left.

Where does janitor come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes straight from the Latin janitor, which literally meant 'doorkeeper' or 'porter', the person who tended the entrance of a building. It was built on janua, the Latin word for 'door' or 'gateway', and that in turn is tied to Janus, the two-faced Roman god of doorways, beginnings, and transitions, who looked both inward and outward (the month January is named after him too). English adopted janitor in the early 1600s, at first keeping the older sense of a doorkeeper or gatekeeper before the meaning broadened to the person who cleans and maintains a building. The spelling trap lives in the ending: it is the Latin agent suffix -or, not the -er we attach to most English job words, so it is janitor and never 'janiter'.

How the word is built

• janit- (from Latin janua: door)
• -or (agent suffix: one who does)