(pōlˈstər)
noun One that takes public-opinion surveys. Also called polltaker.
Word History: The suffix
-ster is nowadays most familiar in words like
pollster, jokester, huckster, where it forms agent nouns that typically denote males. Originally in Old English, however, the suffix (then spelled
-estre) was used to form feminine agent nouns.
Hoppestre, for example, meant “female dancer.” It was occasionally applied to men, but mostly to translate Latin masculine nouns denoting occupations that were usually held by women in Anglo-Saxon society. An example is
bǽcester, “baker,” glossing Latin
pistor; it survives as the Modern English name
Baxter. In Middle English its use as a masculine suffix became more common in northern England, while in the south it remained limited to feminines. In time the masculine usage became dominant throughout the country, and old feminines in
-ster were refashioned by adding the newer feminine suffix
-ess (borrowed from French) to them, such as
seamstress remade from
seamster. In Modern English, the only noun ending in
-ster with a feminine referent is
spinster, which originally meant “a woman who spins thread.”