Dictionary

earner en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Etymology tree English earn Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzios Latin -āriusnom. Latin -āriusbor. Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz Proto-West Germanic *-ārī Old English -ere Middle English -ere English -er English earner From earn + -er.

Meanings

1. One who earns money.
   • Teachers are not simply wage earners who teach students, but revolutionaries bringing up the future builders of socialism. For this reason, we are working hard to help teachers acquire advanced science and technology and to revolutionize and working-classize them. 1972 May 14, Kim Il Sung, Kim Il Sung Works (Kim Il Sung Works; 27), Pyongyang, Korea: Foreign Languages Publishing House, Talk to the Delegation of the Japan National Association of Socialist Mayors, page 177:
   • A remaining downside with potentially big unintended consequences is the legislated proposal doesn’t yet adjust the spouse income test, excluding many couples where one earner loses their job and leading to a perverse and undesirable "benefit cliff". 2020 March 24, Peter Whiteford, Bruce Bradbury, “Your guide to coronavirus payments for the extra million on welfare”, in The Conversation:
2. (Australia, UK) A profitable product or scheme; something that brings in good money.
   • Substantial income from new video markets made Shaker Run New Zealand's top earner at Cannes, closely followed by The Quiet Earth. 2015, Lindsay Shelton, Dancing with Hollywood The Inside Story of How New Zealand Movies Became World-famous, page 76:
   • Those Japanese radios were a nice little earner: we sold all of them by lunchtime.

Forms

Deriveds

big earner · nonearner · dual earner · wage earner · middle earner