Other forms: carers
A carer is the person who looks after somebody who cannot manage alone — an elderly parent, a disabled partner, a child with a long illness. Picture a daughter who drives over every morning to help her father wash and dress, then goes on to her own job.
Most carers are family, doing the work unpaid and untrained, and the word carries that weight in Britain: carer's allowance, young carers, a carers' support group. It also names the paid job — a carer who comes into the house twice a day, or one who works the floor of a care home. Americans say caregiver, and in an American text you will barely see carer at all. Careful with the shape of the word: a carer is not simply somebody who cares about you. Your best friend cares about you; your carer washes you, gives you your tablets and rings the doctor.
1nouncarerA person who looks after someone unable to manage alone through age, illness or disability.
“Her carer arrives at seven to help her wash and dress.”
synonyms: caregiver, care worker
2nounfamilyA family member who does that looking-after at home, without pay.
“As his mother's carer, he had not had a full night's sleep in a year.”
carer is a person who looks after someone.
Also accepted in games: caregiver
Middle English
care
English
care
English, today
carer
Built from
From care + -er. care comes from Middle English care. From Middle English care, from Old English caru, ċearu (“care, concern, anxiety, sorrow, grief, trouble”), from Proto-West Germanic karu, from Proto-Germanic karō (“care, sorrow, cry”), from Proto-Indo-European ǵeh₂r- (“shout, call”). Cognate with Old Saxon cara, kara (“concern, action”), Middle High German kar (“sorrow, lamentation”), Icelandic kör (“sickbed”), Gothic 𐌺𐌰𐍂𐌰 (“concern, care”). Related also to Dutch karig (“scanty”), German karg (“sparse, meagre, barren”), Latin garriō, Ancient Greek γῆρυς. See also chary.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA