gatherer

[ gath-er-er ]

noun

1. a person or thing that collects, brings together, or accumulates:

   The artist acts as both gatherer and creator, collecting vintage artifacts and orchestrating them into open-ended narratives.

   The data gatherers are to inquire about product safety, potential drug interactions, cost, and efficacy.

2. a person who comes together with others:

   In Black churches throughout the South, gatherers celebrated “Watch Night” on December 31, 1862, counting down to the moment when the Emancipation Proclamation would take effect.

Word History and Origins

Origin of gatherer¹

gather ( def ) + -er ¹( def )

Example Sentences

Clarice Jackson of Omaha testified Wednesday before the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee that she was wrongly told by a signature gatherer outside an Omaha store she visited that the petition effort was to support Linehan’s bill.

From Seattle Times

Heywood said he knows of at least one instance where a signature gatherer was paid $3,500 to go to Florida and work there.

From Seattle Times

Clarkson, a former state attorney general, said the signature gatherer named in the complaint, Mikaela Emswiler, paid Wellspring Ministries to rent space for her work.

From Seattle Times

When Cara Ocobock was a young child, she often wondered at the images in movies, books, comics and cartoons portraying prehistoric men and women as such: "man the hunter" with spear in hand, accompanied by "woman the gatherer" with a baby strapped to her back and a basket of crop seeds in hand.

From Science Daily

Society evolved dramatically in the past century, away from physically demanding hunter/gatherer and agrarian societies and toward more easily accessible food.

From Seattle Times

Related Words

• connoisseur
• hobbyist