roomer meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

roomer

noun

Etymology From room + -er (agent noun suffix) or + -er (measurement suffix) (sense 2).

A person who rents a room.

1 more example

Many years ago, while rummaging through cartons in our basement, I found a tattered, coverless copy of James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room. It had probably been left behind by one of the roomers with whom we shared our house.1987 December 20, Joseph Beam, “Not A Bad Legacy, Brother”, in Gay Community News, volume 15, number 23, page 8:

In compounds A residence having the specified number of rooms.

1 more example

Rents were to be $60 a month for a two-room flat, $90 for a three-roomer and $120 for a four-roomer.2009, Peter H. L. Lim, Chronicle of Singapore, 1959-2009: Fifty Years of Headline News, page 59:

adv

Etymology From room + -er (agent noun suffix) or + -er (measurement suffix) (sense 2).

Obsolete At a greater distance; farther off.

The Captaine in a Shippe of warre, is a iollie fellowe, and thinketh himselfe a lyttle God, because hee speaketh prowdlie to the Souldiors, and maketh them quayle at the shaking of his lockes: […] If any be vnrulie, hee casteth him ouerboorde, or if any be fearefull, hee bindes him to the Maste: if hée crie aloofe, the Helmes man dares not goe roomer: and if hée bidde shoote, the gunner dares not but giue fyre.1581, Richard Madox, A Learned and a Godly Sermon, to be read of all men, but especially for all marryners, captaynes and passengers, which trauell the seas, London:
1607, John Harington (translator), Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto, London: John Norton and Simon Waterson, Book 41, stanza 17, p. 343, Yet did the master by all meanes assay, To steare out roomer, or to keepe aloofe, Or at the least to strike sailes if they may, As in such danger was for their behoofe.