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gatherer

gatherer

2 5.8
A person who collects money people owe, like rent or taxes
  • noun
  • /ˈɡæðərər/
translation icon : cobrador
  • As the tax gatherer, she traveled from house to house collecting payments.

Examples

  • Such a system of regulating nonprofits through administrative tax law strongly discourages deviations from the norms embraced by the tax gatherer.

    Academic text (2016)
  • We Saxons have little to fatten on by the time your tax gatherers are through.

  • To the tax gatherer?

  • How did census gatherers classify the people according to race?

    Academic text (1993)
  • The lease required that each tenant pay rent to the gatherer on the first of the month.

  • Every year, the city hired a gatherer to ensure all property taxes were collected on time.

Synonyms

collector
vsgatherer
60 2.8

A person whose job is to get money that others owe

is a broader name covering anyone who does that payment job
tax collector
vsgatherer
13 3.6

A person who takes money from people to pay taxes to the government

covers collecting any payments, not only those taken by government
taxman
vsgatherer
4 3.1

A government worker who collects taxes from people and businesses

is the neutral term used for all payment collection jobs
rent collector
vsgatherer
4.4

A person who goes door to door to collect rent money for a property owner

is more general, applying to collectors of different payment types

Antonyms

67 2.1

A person or company that gives money to get goods and services

Compounds

A person who lives by catching animals and picking wild plants for food instead of farming

How Official

tax collector
13 3.6
gatherer
2 5.8
collector
60 2.8

Surface Forms

gatherer singular
gatherers plural

Morphology

gatherer = gather (transparent) = gather + er

Agentive suffix '-er' applied to 'gather' yields 'one who gathers'; the occupational sense (collector of payments) is a straightforward specialization of 'one who collects'.

Etymology

Gatherer comes from the verb gather, which means 'to collect' or 'bring together', and the ending -er means 'one who'. So a gatherer can also mean 'one who collects money', as in a person who gathers taxes or rent.