Other forms: informers
An informer is somebody who secretly tells the authorities. A police informer, paid informers, denounced as an informer.
The word is heavier than informant and almost always hostile — in occupied countries and in prisons it is among the worst things a person can be called. Under some regimes a large share of the population was recorded as one.
1nouninformerSomebody who secretly tells the authorities.
“The police had an informer inside the gang.”
informer is a person.
Inform plus -er, from Latin informare, to shape or instruct — in plus forma, a shape.
Anglo-Norman
enfourmour
Middle English
enformour
English, today
informer
Middle English enformour, from Anglo-Norman enfourmour; equivalent to inform + er.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA