Etymology

detainer

D2E1T1A1I1N1E1R1

Today it means: The right to keep a person, or a person's goods or property, against his will; a type of custody. Full definition →

Anglo-Norman detener ← Old French detenir
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

detainer · noun1

  1. Old French · derived fromdetenir
  2. Anglo-Norman · borrowed fromdetener
  3. English todaydetainer

Borrowed from Anglo-Norman detener, from Old French detenir. By surface analysis, detain + -er (action noun suffix). First attested in the 17th century.

detainer · noun2

From detain + -er (agent noun suffix).

Words from the same roots

Old Frenchdetenir all →

detain

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.