Contextualizebeta

helper

noun
/ˈhɛlpɚ/US

Etymology

From Middle English helpere, from Old English *helpere, from Proto-West Germanic *helpārī (“helper”), equivalent to help + -er. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Hälper (“helper”), West Frisian helper (“helper”), Dutch helper (“helper”), German Low German Helper (“helper”), German Helfer (“helper”), Danish hjælper (“helper”), Swedish hjälpare (“helper”), Icelandic hjálpar (“helper”).

  1. inherited from *helpārī✻ — “helper”
  2. inherited from *helpere✻
  3. inherited from helpere

Definitions

  1. One who helps

    One who helps; an aide; assistant; auxiliary.

  2. That which helps

    That which helps; anything serving to assist.

    • While Adobe's Acrobat Reader, Macromedia's Flash player, and other common plug-ins suggest themselves the moment you encounter a site that requires them, other browser helpers are harder to find.
    • He no longer liked food that had “helper” in the name, such as Hamburger Helper and Tuna Helper. Patsy said he'd become uppity, and maybe, when it came to food, he had.
    • If a particular calculation is to be used a few times, it makes sense to put it in a helper cell so that it can be referred to by other formulas.

  3. A person who does cleaning and cooking in a family home, or in a market

    A person who does cleaning and cooking in a family home, or in a market; domestic employee.

  4. ›+ 4 more definitions

    1. A locomotive that assists a train, usually on steep gradients.

      • A device for the automatic control of crewless helper locomotives cut into the make-up of heavy freight trains has been perfected by the Louisville & Nashville RR in conjunction with the General Railway Signalling Co.

    2. A stimulating pill, especially amphetamine.

      • And I routinely took more “helpers” when I woke up in order to maintain the fast pace and, more importantly, to study for my final exams.

    3. A city in Carbon County, Utah, United States, which got its name from the practice of the…

      A city in Carbon County, Utah, United States, which got its name from the practice of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad of attaching helper engines to trains there.

    4. A surname

      A surname; variant of Halpern or Helfer.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at helper. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01helper02home03country04institutions05institution06service07assistance08aid

A definitional loop anchored at helper. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

8 hops · closes at helper

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA