![]() ![]() English has used both endings for several centuries. The Online Etymology Dictionary reports that our comes from old French while – or is Latin. "he o(u)r suffix has quite a confused history. That is perhaps why -er words, long before truther, have been used to deride political opponents, as in tree hugger, bra burner and evildoer-not to mention the catch-alls for extremists, wingers and nutters (from wing nut)." ( Leslie Savan, "From Simple Noun to Handy Partisan Put-Down." The New York Times Magazine, Nov. The -ers, the caricature asserts, are not sophisticated enough for that. Nor are they -ites, devout followers of a domineering visionary figure, like Trotskyites, Benthamites or Thatcherites. 'It looks like conspiracy theorists might acquire a permanent suffix in -er, just like political scandals now have a permanent suffix in -gate,' Victor Steinbok, a frequent contributor to the American Dialect Society’s online discussion board, observed recently in that forum.Today’s -er groups are not -ists their beliefs are not -isms or -ologies, theories of social organization like communism or fields of study like sociology. "Call it a vast linguistic conspiracy: proponents of the major conspiracy theories of the day-the truthers, the birthers, the deathers-share a suffix that makes them all sound like whackdoodles.
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