welcomer

Pluralwelcomers

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A person or thing that welcomes people, especially newcomers.

   The hotel employs a welcomer whose job is to greet arriving guests warmly.

   Volunteer welcomers met the new arrivals at the station with hot meals and directions.

   Similargreeter

   Note

   An agent noun as old as Middle English, built from welcome plus the -er of doer words. The same spelling also serves as the comparative adjective, made with the other -er, so a welcomer is someone who greets you, while news can be welcomer than expected. It often comes plural and possessive. Thomas Hardy's young men greet girls who resemble "their welcomers", and Robert Byron in 1933 thanks "my welcomers".

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A person or thing that greets, or is present for, the arrival of something.

   The grand archway served as a welcomer to every traveler entering the old city.

   Spring's first blossoms act as welcomers of the warmer season.

   Similarherald, harbinger

   Note

   Here the welcome is figurative, and it suits poetry and fine writing. The usual frame is welcomer of plus whatever arrives, as in Shakespeare's "woful welcomer of glory" in Richard the Third or Paul Shivell's bloodroot, "frail welcomer of Spring" (1915). It often appears in direct address with thou. It also turns up as one item in a list of what a thing does, as with Pierre von Meiss's window, "welcomer of the daylight".

3. 3
   adjective

   Comparative form of welcome: more welcome. Rare; more welcome is the usual form.

   Note

   The comparative -er attaches only to the adjective welcome, in its senses "received with gladness" and "producing gladness". The interjection and the noun have no comparative. Both the inflected welcomer and the periphrastic more welcome exist. The periphrastic form now dominates standard usage, which leaves welcomer chiefly literary. When you meet it, the word than usually shows it is not the agent noun.

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