helper
/ˈhɛlpɚ/ noun, proper noun
Forms helpers
- noun One who helps; an aide; assistant; auxiliary.
- noun That which helps; anything serving to assist.
- noun (Singapore, Hong Kong, Philippines) A person who does cleaning and cooking in a family home, or in a market; domestic employee.
- noun (rail transport, US) A locomotive that assists a train, usually on steep gradients.
- noun (slang) A stimulating pill, especially amphetamine.
- proper noun A city in Carbon County, Utah, United States, which got its name from the practice of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad of attaching helper engines to trains there.
- proper noun A surname; variant of Halpern or Helfer.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English helpere, from Old English *helpere, from Proto-West Germanic *helpārī (“helper”), equivalent to help + -er. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Hälper (“helper”), West Frisian helper (“helper”), Dutch helper (“helper”), German Low German Helper (“helper”), German Helfer (“helper”), Danish hjælper (“helper”), Swedish hjälpare (“helper”), Icelandic hjálpar (“helper”).
Webster’s 1913
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “helper”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details