Reaper

How to spell reaper

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce reaper

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does reaper mean?

1. nounA person or machine that cuts and gathers a grain crop at harvest.
2. nounA figure representing death, traditionally pictured as a hooded skeleton carrying a scythe.

Reaper in a sentence

• The old reaper in the museum was once pulled by two horses.

• The costume shop sold a hooded reaper outfit every October.

• Each reaper moved slowly along the wheat field at dawn.

• The painting showed a grim reaper standing over the battlefield.

Where does reaper come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a native English word that traces straight back to the Old English verb 'ripan' (also spelled 'reopan'), meaning to cut down and gather standing grain at harvest time. That verb belonged to the same Germanic family as words for ripeness and the ripening of crops, since the harvest happens when the grain is ripe. By adding the ordinary agent suffix -er, English formed a noun for the person who does the reaping, and later for the horse-drawn or mechanical machine that does the same job. The spelling keeps the 'ea' digraph that English often uses for this long 'ee' sound, the same pattern seen in 'reap', 'heap' and 'leap'. From the medieval image of a figure swinging a curved blade through a field came the grim personification of death as a hooded reaper carrying a scythe, a sense still alive in modern English.

How the word is built

• reap (to cut and gather grain)
• -er (agent suffix: one who or that which does)