Packer

How to spell packer

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce packer

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does packer mean?

1. nounA person or device that puts items into containers, boxes, or bundles for storage or transport.

Packer in a sentence

• The warehouse hired an extra packer to keep up with holiday orders.

• The factory installed a new automatic packer to seal the cartons.

Where does packer come from?

Language of origin: Dutch

The base word 'pack' arrived in English in the 1200s from the Low Countries, where Middle Dutch and Middle Low German had 'pak', meaning a bundle of goods tied together for carrying or trade. It spread through the wool and cloth merchants of medieval northern Europe, since a 'pack' was the standard bundle a trader or a packhorse hauled to market. The agent ending '-er', a native Germanic suffix used to name the person or device that performs an action, was added to produce 'packer', literally 'one who packs'. Over the centuries the word picked up specific trades, naming the workers who bundled meat in a packing house and, later, the machines that fill and seal goods on a production line. The spelling stays reliably phonetic, with the single 'c' before 'k' simply reflecting the original short vowel of 'pack'.

How the word is built

• pack (a bundle or to bundle)
• -er (agent suffix: one who, or thing which, does the action)