fielder

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• Rhymes: -iːldə(ɹ)

From Middle English feldere (“one who works in the field; rustic”), from Old English feldeware (“field-dweller”), equivalent to field +‎ -er. The baseball sense is from 1832.

fielder (plural fielders)

1. A dog trained in pursuit of game in the field.
2. (baseball, softball) A defensive player in the field.
3. (obsolete) A fieldworker.

From field (verb) +‎ -er.

fielder (plural fielders)

1. Agent noun of field: One who fields anything.
   • 2006, Andrew Nugent, The Slow-release Miracle: A Spirituality for a Lifetime, page 4:

     And today, with our bewilderingly various profusion of gurus and therapists: never before have we had so many self-proffering fielders of the question. Although we are adept at asking questions, we are not always so good at hearing answers.

2. (cricket) A player of the fielding side, whose task is to gather the ball after the batsman has hit it, to catch the batsman out, or to prevent him from scoring.

   Synonym: fieldsman

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “fielder, n.”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.

• Fiedler, Friedel, defiler, drelfie, fliered, refiled, relifed