ager

See also: agër, Ager, äger, åger, and Ağer

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *h₂ey-

Proto-Indo-European *-u

Proto-Indo-European *h₂óyu

Proto-Indo-European *-wom

Proto-Indo-European *h₂oywom

Proto-Italic *aiwom

Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂

Proto-Indo-European *-ts

Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂ts

Proto-Italic *-tāts

Proto-Italic *aiwotāts

Latin aetātem

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂

Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂

Proto-Indo-European *-tós

Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂tos

Proto-Italic *-ātos

Latin -ātus

Proto-Indo-European *-kos

Proto-Indo-European *-ikos

Proto-Italic *-ikos

Latin -icus

Latin -āticus

Latin -āticum

Vulgar Latin *aetāticum

Old French eagebor.

Middle English age

English age

Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂

Proto-Indo-European *-so-

Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂so-

Proto-Indo-European *-yós

Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂s(i)yós

Proto-Italic *-āsijos

Proto-Italic *-āsios

Latin -āriusnom.

Latin -āriusbor.

Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz

Proto-West Germanic *-ārī

Old English -ere

Middle English -ere

English -er

English ager

From age + -er.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈeɪ.dʒə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈeɪ.d͡ʒɚ/

Noun

ager (plural agers)

1. One who or that which ages something.
2. (euphemistic) One who is aging; an elderly person.
   • 1965, Richard Hays Williams, Claudine G. Wirths, Lives Through the Years: Styles of Life and Successful Aging, Transaction Publishers, →ISBN, page 165:

     When the aging person depends on another, the control of the aged one's life space is placed in the hands of another person who may or may not contribute action energy that is appropriate or acceptable from the standpoint of the ager.

   • 2006, Gloria Davenport, Working with Toxic Older Adults: A Guide to Coping with Difficult Elders, Springer Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 143:

     Inappropriate behavior then erupts from the agers involved, disturbing everyone around, including the agers themselves, who often do not understand what is happening and struggle excessively to maintain rigid control of old perceptions and self images.

   • 2014, Susan H. McFadden, Mark Brennan, New Directions in the Study of Late Life Religiousness and Spirituality, Routledge, →ISBN, page 62:

     This definition of success is located in society's structures and suits society, not the agers. Successful ageing is arguably therefore a socially constructed phenomenon, characterized by lack of “noise,” maintenance of youthful status until death, and a dogged engagement with social structures which appear almost as if designed to discourage the engagement of older people.

3. (in compounds) One who belongs to a particular age or era.
   • 2004, Linda Bailey, Adventures in the Ice Age, Kids Can Press Ltd, →ISBN, page 48:

     The Ice Agers of this time invented new tools and technology and produced magnificent art.

   • 2008 December 26, Tim Moore, I Believe In Yesterday: My Adventures in Living History, Random House, →ISBN, page 42:

     "You were just watching people without any period skills faffing about - any Iron Ager would have known that if you cook chicken in the dark, you'll end up with food poisoning. We didn't learn anything about their period at all"

   • 2020 September 1, Michael McCarthy, The Hidden Hindenburg: The Untold Story of the Tragedy, the Nazi Secrets, and the Quest to Rule the Skies, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 66:

     Late Victorian Agers who witnessed cars replace horses, who lived through the dawn of radio and the recent discovery of a new planet named Pluto, joked that the world had come to this, that babies could now be conceived in the clouds.

Synonyms

• (elderly person): geriatric, oldster, senior citizen; see also Thesaurus:old person

Derived terms

• middle-ager
• superager

Anagrams

• GRAE, Gear, Gera, Rega, areg, gare, gear, rage

Danish

Etymology 1

From Old Danish akær, from Old Norse akr, from Proto-Germanic *akraz, cognate with Swedish åker, English acre, German Acker. The word goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵros (“field”), which is also the source of Latin ager, Ancient Greek ἀγρός (agrós), Sanskrit अज्रः (ájraḥ).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aːˀɣər/, [ˈæˀ(j)ɐ]
• Rhymes: -aːˀər

Noun

ager c (singular definite ageren, plural indefinite agre)

1. (dated) field

   Synonyms: agerjord, mark

Declension

Declension of ager

common gender	singular	plural
indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	ager	ageren	agre	agrene
genitive	agers	agerens	agres	agrenes

Derived terms

• agerbrug
• agerdyrker
• agerdyrkning
• agerjord

References

• “ager” in Den Danske Ordbog

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aːɣər/, [ˈæː(j)ɐ]
• Homophone: aer

Verb

ager

1. present tense of age

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aɡeːˀr/, [aˈɡ̊eˀɐ̯], [aˈɡ̊eɐ̯ˀ]

Verb

ager or agér

1. imperative of agere

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *agros, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵros. Cognates include Umbrian ager, South Picene akren, Ancient Greek ἀγρός (agrós), Sanskrit अज्र (ájra) and Old English æcer (English acre).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈa.ɡɛr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈaː.d͡ʒer]

Noun

ager m (genitive agrī); second declension

1. field; acre
   • c. 37 BCE – 30 BCE, Vergilius, Georgicon 2.346–353:

     Quod superest, quaecumque premēs virgulta per agrōs,
     Sparge fimō pinguī et multā memor occule terrā, […] .

     • Translation by James B. Greenough

       For the rest, whate’er / The sets thou plantest in thy fields, thereon / Strew refuse rich, and with abundant earth / Take heed to hide them, […] .

2. land; estate; park
   • 68 BCE – 44 BCE, Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum 3.15.5:

     Itaque exspecto Thessalonicae acta Kal. Sext., ex quibus statuam in tuosne agros confugiam, ut neque videam homines quos nolim et te, ut scribis, videam et propius sim si quid agatur, idque intellexi cum tibi tum Quinto fratri placere, an abeam Cyzicum.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

3. territory

   Ager Romanus ― The roman land possessions, as opposed to:

   Ager peregrinus ― foreign lands, territory

   • c. 52 BCE, Julius Caesar, Commentarii de bello Gallico 1.2:

     […] ūna ex parte flūmine Rhēnō lātissimō atque altissimō, quī agrum Helvētium ā Germānīs dīvidit; […] .

     […] on one side by the very wide and very deep Rhine River, which separates the Helvetian territory from the Germans; […] .

4. (chiefly plural only) country; countryside
   • 27 BCE – 25 BCE, Titus Livius, Ab urbe condita 3.32:

     Vastati agri sunt, urbs adsiduis exhausta funeribus; multae et clarae lugubres domus.

     The country was desolated, the city emptied out by continual deaths; many illustrious houses were in mourning.

5. terrain
6. soil

Declension

Second-declension noun (nominative singular in -er).

	singular	plural
nominative	ager	agrī
genitive	agrī	agrōrum
dative	agrō	agrīs
accusative	agrum	agrōs
ablative	agrō	agrīs
vocative	ager	agrī

Derived terms

• agellus
• agrālis
• agrāria
• agrārius
• agrāticum
• agrellus
• agrestis
• agricola
• agricultiō
• agricultor
• agricultūra
• agrimēnsor
• agripeta
• agrōsus
• peragrō
• peregre

Descendants

• Aromanian: agru
• French: aire
• → French: ager
• Galician: agro, agra
• Italian: agro
• Megleno-Romanian: agru
• Old Occitan: agre
• Portuguese: agro
• Romanian: agru
• Spanish: agro

Borrowings

• →? Proto-Berber:
  • Atlas:
    • Tashelhit: igr
    • Central Atlas Tamazight: ⵉⴳⵔ (igr)
    • Senhaja de Srair: iger
  • Zenati:
    • Tarifit: iyyar, igar

References

• “ager”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ager”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “ager”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to irrigate fields: agros irrigare
    
  • the river floods the fields: flumen agros inundat
    
  • to settle a large number of people in a country: multitudinem in agris collocare
    
  • to till the ground: agrum colere (Leg. Agr. 2. 25. 67)
    
  • to leave fertile ground untilled: agros fertiles deserere
    
  • to live in the country: in agris esse, habitare
    
  • the corn is not yet ripe: frumenta in agris matura non sunt (B. G. 1. 16. 2)
    
  • public land; state domain: ager publicus
    
  • to allot land: agros assignare (Leg. Agr. 1. 6. 17)
    
  • to make an inroad into hostile territory: excursionem in hostium agros facere
    
• “ager”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “ager”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

Romanian

Etymology

Inherited from Latin agilis (“swift”). Doublet of agil, a borrowing.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈa.d͡ʒer/

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

ager m or n (feminine singular ageră, masculine plural ageri, feminine/neuter plural agere)

1. quick, swift.
2. smart, cunning, sharp.
3. (of objects) sharp

Declension

Declension of ager

	singular	plural
	masculine	neuter	feminine	masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative- accusative	indefinite	ager	ageră	ageri	agere
definite	agerul	agera	agerii	agerele
genitive- dative	indefinite	ager	agere	ageri	agere
definite	agerului	agerei	agerilor	agerelor

Synonyms

• (sharp): ascuțit

See also

• agil

Scanian

Etymology

From Old Norse akr, from Proto-Germanic *akraz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ɑ́ːɣɐ]

Noun

ager m (definite singular agern, plural agrar)

1. a field

Umbrian

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *agros, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵros. Cognate with Latin ager.

Noun

ager (Assisi)

1. field, land
   • c. 100-90 BCE, Um 10, Boundary marker stone from Assisi (Wikisource):

     AGER⸱EMPS⸱ET
     TERMNAS⸱OHT
     C⸱V⸱VISTINIE⸱NER⸱T⸱BABR
     MARONATEI
     VOIS⸱NER⸱PROPARTIE
     T⸱V⸱VOISIENER
     ⸱SACRE⸱STAHV

     • 2004 translation by Rex E. Wallace

       This land was purchased and marked out under the authority of C. Vestinius, (son) of Vibius, (and) Nero Babrius, son of T., in the maroship Volso Propertius, (son) of Nero, (and) T. Volsenius, (son) of Vibius. I stand inviolable.

Declension

• (genitive singular) e.Ig. agre
• (ablative singular) e.Ig. 𐌀𐌊𐌓𐌖𐌕𐌖 (akrutu)

References

• Buck, Carl Darling (1904), A Grammar of Oscan and Umbrian: With a Collection of Inscriptions and a Glossary‎^[2]
• De Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 29
• Poultney, James Wilson (1959), The Bronze Tables of Iguvium‎^[3], Baltimore: American Philological Association

Welsh

Alternative forms

• agerdd

Pronunciation

• (North Wales) IPA^(key): /ˈaɡɛr/
• (South Wales) IPA^(key): /ˈa(ː)ɡɛr/

Noun

ager m (plural agerau)

1. steam

   Synonyms: stêm, anwedd

Derived terms

• agerfad (“steamboat”)
• agerforthwyl (“steam-hammer”)
• agerlong (“steamship”)
• agerstalwm (“steampunk”)
• ageru (“to steam”)

Mutation

Mutated forms of ager

radical	soft	nasal	h-prothesis
ager	unchanged	unchanged	hager

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Further reading

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke, et al., editors (1950–present), “ager”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies