Other forms: heaters
A heater is the appliance that warms a cold room. Plugged in, switched on, and standing where the draught is worst.
English names them by how they work: a fan heater blows warm air, a convector heater warms it more slowly, and an oil-filled radiator holds the heat after it is switched off. A water heater does a different job entirely. Cars have heaters too, and the noise a car heater makes is one of winter's small comforts. The verb behind it is heat, and heating is the whole system in a building.
1nounheaterA device for warming a room or a supply of water.
“He dragged the heater closer to the desk.”
Proto-Indo-European
*keHy- — heat; hot
Proto-Germanic
*haitį̄ — heat
Proto-West Germanic
*haitī
Old English
hǣtu
Middle English
hete
English
heat
English, today
heater
From heat + -er. heat comes from Middle English hete, from Old English hǣtu, from Proto-West Germanic haitī, from Proto-Germanic haitį̄ (“heat”), from Proto-Indo-European keHy- (“heat; hot”). Cognate with Scots hete (“heat”), stq Hatte (“heat”), Old High German heizī (“heat”). Related also to Dutch hitte (“heat”), German Hitze (“heat”), Swedish hetta (“heat”), Faroese and Icelandic hiti (“heat”). Related to hot.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA