Retainer

How to spell retainer

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce retainer

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does retainer mean?

1. nounA fee paid in advance to secure the ongoing services of a professional, such as a lawyer or consultant.
2. nounA removable or fixed dental appliance worn to hold teeth in their corrected position after braces.
3. nounA servant or attendant kept in the service of a person or household, especially a long-standing one.

Retainer in a sentence

• The firm pays the solicitor a monthly retainer to stay on call.

• After her braces came off, she wore a retainer every night.

• The elderly lord was accompanied by a loyal retainer of forty years.

• Before any work began, the consultant requested a substantial retainer.

• The orthodontist fitted a clear plastic retainer to keep his teeth straight.

• The family employed an old retainer to manage the estate.

Where does retainer come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word grows out of the verb 'retain', which English borrowed in the late 1300s from the Old French retenir, itself descended from the Latin retinere, meaning literally 'to hold back' or 'to keep'. That Latin verb joined re- 'back' with tenere 'to hold', a root that also gives us 'tenant', 'tenacious', and 'contain'. Adding the agent and instrument suffix -er produced 'retainer' for a person or thing that holds or keeps. From this single idea the senses fanned out: a faithful servant 'kept' in a great household, a fee paid to 'keep' a professional on call, and later a dental brace that holds straightened teeth in place. The buried 'tain' spelling, rather than a phonetic 'tane', is the clue that traces it straight back to that Latin tenere.

How the word is built

• re- (back)
• tain (from Latin tenere: to hold)
• -er (agent/instrument noun)