scavenger

Meanings

Noun

• Someone who scavenges, especially one who searches through rubbish for food or useful things.
• An animal that feeds on decaying matter such as carrion.
• A street sweeper.
• A child employed to pick up loose cotton from the floor in a cotton mill.
• A substance used to remove impurities from the air or from a solution.

Verb

• To scavenge.
• To clean the rubbish from a street, etc.

Origin

• Originally from Middle English scavager, from Anglo-Norman scawageour, from Old Northern French *scawage, escauwage, Old French *scavage, escavage, alteration of escauvinghe (compare Medieval Latin scewinga, sceawinga), from Old Dutch scauwōn. Usually reinterpreted/re-analysed today as scavenge (which was originally a backformation from this word) + -er. Compare Old English sċēawung and Dutch schouwing. More at show.