Worker

How to spell worker

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce worker

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does worker mean?

1. nounA person who does a particular job, especially manual or paid labour.

Worker in a sentence

• Each worker on the production line wore safety goggles.

• The factory hired one extra worker for the busy season.

Where does worker come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word comes from the Old English verb 'wyrcan' and the noun 'weorc', meaning to labour, to make, or the activity of toil itself, part of the native Germanic vocabulary that English shares with Dutch 'werk' and German 'Werk'. To form a noun for the person doing the labour, English added the agent suffix '-er', which descends from Old English '-ere' and was used to turn verbs into nouns naming the doer. The pattern is ancient and entirely regular, which is why 'worker' looks and behaves so predictably. The same root underlies a host of familiar relatives such as 'wrought' (an old past form of work), 'wright' (as in playwright and shipwright), and even 'energy', which reaches English from a Greek cousin of the same idea of doing. Because the spelling simply joins the plain word 'work' to a plain '-er', there is no hidden trap, only the slight oddity that the 'wor-' is pronounced 'wer'.

How the word is built

• work (to labour or function)
• -er (agent suffix: one who does)