aider

English

Etymology

aid + -er

Noun

aider (plural aiders)

  1. A person who aids or assists.
    • 1548, Edward Hall, “The trobleous season of Kyng Henry the sixt, The .xv. yere”, in Hall’s Chronicle, London: Richard Grafton:
      The capitaines of the toune seyng theire pillers borken, and their chief ayders discomfited, rendered the toune to the duke of Somerset,
    • 1589, George Puttenham, The Arte of English Poesie, London: Richard Field, Book 3, Chapter 15, p. 254:
      [] arte is neither an aider nor a surmounter, but onely a bare immitatour of natures works, following and counterfeyting her actions and effects []
    • 1838 March – 1839 October, Charles Dickens, “Of the Internal Economy of Dotheboys Hall”, in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, London: Chapman and Hall, [], published 1839, →OCLC, page 73:
      [] being there as an assistant, he actually seemed—[]—to be the aider and abettor of a system which filled him with honest disgust and indignation, []
    • 1898, Paul Laurence Dunbar, chapter III, in The Uncalled: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, →OCLC, page 23:
      The woman in question had, as she said, been a close friend of Margaret’s, and, as such, an aider in her habits of intemperance.
  2. (climbing) A mountaineer's stirrup or étrier.
    As I was switching my feet in my aiders, the hook popped.

Usage notes

Often used in the phrase aider and abettor; see also aid and abet.

Anagrams

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French ayder, from Old French aidier, from Latin adiutāre (help, assist). Cognate with Catalan aidar, Spanish ayudar, Romanian ajuta, Italian aiutare, Portuguese and Catalan ajudar.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɛ.de/, /e.de/
  • (file)

Verb

aider

  1. to help; to aid
    Synonym: obliger (Louisiana)

Conjugation

Derived terms

Descendants

  • Saint Dominican Creole French: hinder
  • English: mayday (from (venez) m’aider!)

Further reading

Anagrams

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