Researcher

How to spell researcher

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce researcher

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does researcher mean?

1. nounA person who carries out careful, systematic investigation into a subject in order to establish facts or reach conclusions.

Researcher in a sentence

• The researcher spent three years gathering data for the climate study.

• As a medical researcher, she published several papers on the new vaccine.

Where does researcher come from?

Language of origin: French

This word is built on 'research', which English took in the late 1500s from the Middle French recerche, a noun formed from the verb recercher meaning 'to seek out again' or 'to search thoroughly'. The recercher itself joined the intensive prefix re- to the older French cerchier 'to search', a verb that descended from the Late Latin circare, meaning 'to go around' or 'to wander about looking', which in turn grew from circus 'circle, ring'. So at its root the idea is one of circling around a subject until you find what you want, a fitting image for careful investigation. The agent ending -er was attached in English to give 'researcher', a person who carries out such investigation, a form that became common as a job title only in the modern scientific era. The spelling trap lives in the unstressed middle: writers hear 'ri-SUR-cher' and can drop the silent first 'r' of 'search' or muddle the doubled 'r' sounds, even though the word is simply 'research' plus '-er'.

How the word is built

• re- (again, thoroughly)
• search (to seek, from Old French cerchier)
• -er (agent suffix: one who does)