Transcript:
What the heck is with the “-er” suffix?
“I’m a witcher.”
“What does a witcher do?”
“I create watch catch breed f*** hunt witches.”
“I’m a birder.”
“What does a birder do?”
“I create catch hunt breed f*** watch birds.”
“Actually I think several of those could apply…”
I think the confusing-ass formula is this:
A [word1]er is a [word2]er of [word1]s.
What is “birding”? According to dictionary, it’s breed, catch, or watch. Fishers fish, right? What is “to fish” really, though? To swim? To be a fish? I mean, you can’t extrapolate it from the common verb as a rule, because that doesn’t apply to “birding”, does it?
So no, I don’t think your over-simplification works.
It’s not an over-simplification. This is literally just what the -er suffix does, besides the unrelated usage to make comparisons like “louder”. Look up “agent noun” for more info.
The common usage is to watch birds. The extension of the verb “bird” into “birder” is also commonly understood to mean someone who watches birds.
What? It means to catch fish. I’ve never heard any other meaning? Again, it’s not based on what a fish does, it’s based on what the verb “fish” means, which is to catch fish.
Ignoring the fact that “bird” is a verb with a fairly well-understood meaning, the reason “birder” or any other -er words are ambiguous is because the verbs are ambiguous. Words have multiple meanings… that’s just something that they do. That doesn’t change the overall rule that “birder” means “someone who birds”, it just means you have to figure out which meaning of “bird” (as a verb) it’s using.
Wow, everything I said just went completely over your head. Just because you already know what “to fish” means doesn’t mean that it can be extrapolated from the word by someone who doesn’t already know what it means.
No, everything you said was addressed and then you brought up a different issue that was supposedly your real point all along (and that I did also address). I see you’ve opted for the wheeled goalposts for easier mobility. Is this an April Fool’s prank?
To be clear: You wanted to know what “fisher” means. The answer is that it means “someone who fishes”. If you also don’t know what the verb “fishes” means, then you can go look it up in the dictionary like any other word you don’t know the meaning of. But “fisher” has a perfectly clear meaning based on the verb “fish” (or multiple potential meanings based on context, if “fish” as a verb has multiple meanings).
That is literally not consistent with the way many of these words work. That’s the entire point of the post. I have no clue how you don’t understand that. You are over-simplifying. How many examples of this not being how it works do you want me to look up for you right now? Hell, you got one in goddamned front of you. “Bird” is not a freaking verb— not in relation to the animal, anyway.
Yes it is! It’s just not one you recognize!
Okay, listen. You’re saying “birder” is “someone who birds birds”. And? What does “to bird” even mean? According to the dictionary, it means TO OBSERVE, not literally TO BIRD. And what is a fisher? “A person who fishes fish”? And what does “to fish” mean? TO CATCH. Not TO OBSERVE this time. That means that verbing a noun is not consistent. You could argue “A [noun]er is a person who [same-noun-but-used-as-a-verb]s [first noun]s” all day, but what does that effing really mean when that verb is different every time?
I really, really don’t know how to break this down simpler for you, okay? The meaning is inconsistent, and cannot be known without being told, which means can’t be extrapolated at all. That’s the freaking point. Already knowing the meaning of words is not the same as extrapolating them.
You’re adding an extra noun! It’s not “someone who verbs nouns”, it’s just “someone who verbs”. Example: A birder is not “someone who birds birds”, it’s just “someone who birds”, with “bird” meaning “to observe birds”. This is easier to see with simpler nouns. Welder = someone who welds. Racer = someone who races. Yodeler = someone who yodels. Singer = someone who sings. The meaning is inconsistent because the verb is different every time! You’re not being given a noun and have to guess the verb. You’re being given the verb directly. If you don’t know what that verb means then yeah you have to look it up, just like EVERY OTHER WORD IN EXISTENCE.
Edit:
You can keep saying stuff like this but every time you do I only relish the irony.
Anyways I decided an example that can’t even have a noun might be helpful. This works with any intransitive verb, but the best example I have is probably “worker” = “someone who works”. You could also use “yawner”, “laugher”, “walker”, “carer”, etc.