peer

English Online Dictionary. What means peer‎? What does peer mean?

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English piren (“to peer”), from or related to Saterland Frisian pierje (“to look”), Dutch Low Saxon piren (“to look”), West Flemish pieren (“to look with narrowed eyes, squint at”), Dutch pieren (“to look closely at, examine”), which could all be related to the root of English blear. Or, possibly from a shortening of appear.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pɪə̯/
• (General American) enPR: pîr, IPA^(key): /pɪ(ə)ɹ/
• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)
• Homophone: pier

Verb

peer (third-person singular simple present peers, present participle peering, simple past and past participle peered)

1. (intransitive) To look with difficulty, or as if searching for something.
   • 1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner in Lyrical Ballads, London: J. & A. Arch, Part III, p. 17,^[1]

     And strait the Sun was fleck’d with bars

     (Heaven’s mother send us grace)

     As if thro’ a dungeon grate he peer’d

     With broad and burning face.
2. (intransitive, obsolete) To come in sight; to appear.

Derived terms

• overpeer
• underpeer

Translations

Noun

peer (plural peers)

1. A look; a glance.

Etymology 2

From Middle English pere, per, from Anglo-Norman peir, Old French per, from Latin pār. Doublet of pair and par.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pɪə̯/
• (General American) enPR: pîr, IPA^(key): /pɪɹ/
• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)
• Homophone: pier

Noun

peer (plural peers)

1. Somebody who is, or something that is, at a level or of a value equal (to that of something else).
2. Someone who is approximately the same age (as someone else).
3. A noble with a title, i.e., a peerage, and in times past, with certain rights and privileges not enjoyed by commoners.
4. A comrade; a companion; an associate.

Translations

Verb

peer (third-person singular simple present peers, present participle peering, simple past and past participle peered)

1. To make equal in rank.
2. (Internet) To carry communications traffic terminating on one's own network on an equivalency basis to and from another network, usually without charge or payment. Contrast with transit where one pays another network provider to carry one's traffic.

Derived terms

Etymology 3

pee +‎ -er

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /piː.ə/
• (General American) enPR: pîr, IPA^(key): /pi.ɚ/

Noun

peer (plural peers)

1. (informal) Someone who pees, someone who urinates.

Anagrams

• père, Pree, pree, Reep, Pere, pere

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch peer, from Middle Dutch pēre, from Vulgar Latin *pira, from Latin pirum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɪə̯r/

Noun

peer (plural pere)

1. pear

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch pēre, from Vulgar Latin *pira, from Latin pirum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /peːr/, [pɪːr]
• Hyphenation: peer
• Rhymes: -eːr

Noun

peer f (plural peren, diminutive peertje n)

1. a pear, a fruit of the pear tree

2. a light bulb

Derived terms

• handpeer
• heerlie de peerlie
• muilpeer
• perensap
• perenwijn
• stoofpeer

Descendants

• Afrikaans: peer
• Jersey Dutch: pêr
• → Aukan: peli
• → Saramaccan: péíli (from the diminutive form)

Noun

peer m (plural peren, diminutive peertje n)

1. a pear tree, Pyrus communis

Anagrams

• reep

Estonian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpeːr/, [ˈpeːr]

Etymology 1

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

peer (genitive peeru, partitive peeru)

1. (colloquial) fart

   Synonym: puuks

Declension

Etymology 2

From French pair.

Noun

peer (genitive peeri, partitive peeri)

1. (historical) peer (member of high nobility with certain political privileges)
2. (politics) peer (member of the UK House of Lords)

   Synonym: lord

Declension

Further reading

• peer in Sõnaveeb (Eesti Keele Instituut)
• “peer”, in [EKSS] Eesti keele seletav sõnaraamat [Descriptive Dictionary of the Estonian Language] (in Estonian) (online version), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2009
• “peer”, in [ÕS] Eesti õigekeelsussõnaraamat ÕS 2018 [Estonian Spelling Dictionary] (in Estonian) (online version), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2018, →ISBN

Middle English

Noun

peer

1. Alternative form of pere (“peer”)

Adjective

peer

1. Alternative form of pere (“equal”)

Scots

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pir/

Etymology 1

From Middle English pere (“pear”), from Old English pere, peru, from Vulgar Latin *pira, from Latin pirum.

Noun

peer (plural peers)

1. pear (fruit)

Derived terms

• peerie

Etymology 2

From Middle English piren (“to peer”).

Verb

peer (third-person singular simple present peers, present participle peerin, simple past peert, past participle peert)

1. To peer.

Spanish

Etymology

Inherited from Latin pēdere, pēdō, from Proto-Italic *pezdō from Proto-Indo-European *pesd-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /peˈeɾ/ [peˈeɾ]
• Rhymes: -eɾ
• Syllabification: pe‧er

Verb

peer (first-person singular present peo, first-person singular preterite peí, past participle peído)

1. to break wind, to fart
2. (reflexive) to break wind; fart

Conjugation

Related terms

Further reading

• “peer”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10