launderer
Meaning
A person or business that washes and irons clothes, bed linen, etc.
A person or organization that engages in money laundering.
Structure
Usage
The hotel sent its linens to a professional launderer.
Authorities arrested the financier, who was acting as a launderer for the cartel's profits.
Before washing machines were common, many households employed a launderer.
Etymology
The word 'launderer' has a straightforward morphological construction, combining the verb 'launder' with the agentive suffix '-er'. The verb 'launder' itself has a long history, entering Middle English from the Old French lavandiere, which referred to a washerwoman. This French term traces back to the Latin verb lavare, meaning "to wash," a root also visible in words like 'lavatory' and 'lavish' (originally meaning "to pour out profusely"). The '-er' suffix is a productive Germanic element for creating agent nouns, as seen in 'baker' or 'teacher'. Thus, a 'launderer' literally means "one who washes," a meaning that expanded metaphorically in the 20th century to include the "cleaning" of illegally obtained money.
Analysis
- launder: From Middle English, from Old French lavandiere, ultimately from Latin lavare (to wash). The core verb meaning "to wash" in the word. - er: A native English agent noun suffix, from Old English -ere, used to form nouns denoting a person or thing that performs the action of the verb.