Other forms: hunters
A hunter is somebody who tracks and kills animals. A big-game hunter, hunters and gatherers, a fox hunter.
Hunter-gatherer societies fed everybody for the great majority of human history, and the shift to farming is only about twelve thousand years old. In Britain a hunter is also a horse bred for hunting. Figuratively, hunter names anybody pursuing something: a bargain hunter, a house hunter. Note huntress; and that the Old English hunta means the same.
1nounhunterSomebody who tracks and kills animals.
“The hunters followed the deer's tracks through the snow.”
2nounanybodyAnybody pursuing something.
“Bargain hunters queued outside the shop before the sale began.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
hunter is a pursuer.
Middle English huntere is hunt plus -er, and Old English had hunta doing the same job. The -er form replaced it, as it did for many agent nouns.
Middle English
huntere
English, today
hunter
From Middle English huntere, hunter, equivalent to hunt + er. Compare Old English hunta (“hunter”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA