Mover

How to spell mover

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce mover

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does mover mean?

1. nounA person or thing that moves, or that sets something in motion.
2. nounA person or company hired to transport furniture and belongings to a new home.

Mover in a sentence

• The manager was the prime mover behind the merger.

• We booked a professional mover to handle the heavy furniture.

• As a fast mover in the rankings, she earned a promotion within a year.

• The mover wrapped each box and loaded the truck before noon.

Where does mover come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is built from the verb 'move', which came into English in the 1200s from Anglo-French 'mover' and Old French 'movoir', themselves descended from the Latin verb 'movere', meaning 'to set in motion' or 'to stir'. The Latin root also gave English a large family of relatives, including 'motion', 'motor', 'remove', and 'emotion', all carrying the underlying idea of putting something in motion. The agent suffix '-er', a thoroughly native English ending meaning 'one who does the action', was attached to 'move' to name a person or thing that moves. By the 1400s 'mover' was in use for anyone who initiates or causes movement, and the practical sense of a person or firm that transports household belongings developed much later. The spelling stays simple because the silent 'e' of 'move' is dropped before the '-er' ending, leaving the single 'v' that learners sometimes want to double.

How the word is built

• mov (from Latin movere: to move)
• -er (agent suffix: one who does)