engager

English

Etymology

From engage +‎ -er.

Noun

engager (plural engagers)

1. One who, or that which, engages.

   engagers in conflicts

   1. (biochemistry) A particle or compound which engages certain cells in a process.
      • 2021 May 26, Shujie Zhou, Mingguo Liu, Fei Ren, Xiangjiao Meng, Jinming Yu, “The landscape of bispecific T cell engager in cancer treatment”, in Biomarker Research, volume 9, →DOI, article 38, page 1:

        To address this limitation, strategies for redirecting T cells to treat cancer are being intensively investigated, while the bispecific T cell engager (BiTE) therapy constitutes one of the most promising therapeutic approaches.

2. One who enters into an engagement or agreement; a surety.
   • 1834, George Godfrey Cunningham, Lives of Eminent and Illustrious Englishmen:

     Several sufficient citizens were engagers.

Derived terms

French

Etymology

From Middle French, from Old French engagier (“to pawn, make a pledge, plight”), from en- + gage (“pledge”), from Late Latin vadium (“pledge”), from Frankish *wadja (“pledge”), from Proto-Germanic *wadjō, *wadją (“pledge, guarantee”), from Proto-Indo-European *wadh- (“guarantee, bail”). Cognate with Middle Dutch wedde (“property, pay”), Old High German wetti (“collateral, security agreement”), Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌳𐌹 (wadi), 𐍅𐌰𐌳𐌾𐌰 (wadja, “guarantee”), Old English wedd (“pledge, vow”). More at wed.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑ̃.ɡa.ʒe/

• audio

  (file)

Verb

engager

1. to pledge, commit
2. to hire, sign, snap up
3. to involve
4. to encourage
5. to pawn
6. (military) to enlist
7. to enter into (e.g., a conversation)

Conjugation

This is a regular -er verb, but the stem is written engage- before endings that begin with -a- or -o- (to indicate that the -g- is a "soft" /ʒ/ and not a "hard" /ɡ/). This spelling-change occurs in all verbs in -ger, such as neiger and manger.

Derived terms

• engagement
• engagiste

Descendants

• → Italian: ingaggiare
• → Ladino: engajar
• → Polish: angażować
• → Portuguese: engajar
• → Romanian: angaja
• → Turkish: angaje

Further reading

• “engager”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Anagrams

• regagne, regagné

Old French

Verb

engager

1. Alternative form of engagier

Conjugation

This verb conjugates as a first-group verb ending in -er. In the present tense an extra supporting e is needed in the first-person singular indicative and throughout the singular subjunctive, and the third-person singular subjunctive ending -t is lost. In addition, g becomes j before an a or an o to keep the /dʒ/ sound intact. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.