Transcript:
What the heck is with the “-er” suffix?
“I’m a witcher.”
“What does a witcher do?”
“I create watch catch breed f*** hunt witches.”
“I’m a birder.”
“What does a birder do?”
“I create catch hunt breed f*** watch birds.”
“Actually I think several of those could apply…”
I think the confusing-ass formula is this:
A [word1]er is a [word2]er of [word1]s.
Hawk can be a verb meaning “to hunt with a hawk”. It can also be a verb meaning "To peddle goods aggressively, especially by calling out. "
If they’re hawking, i.e. hunting with a hawk, then they’re a hawker.
Because over time, we dropped the second word …
An the second usage is “hock”
Which is a completely different word… People used “hawk” for selling because, well people don’t always know what they’re doing. But language evolves. Use “literally” to mean “figuratively” enough, and dictionaries start listing that as an option.
Because dictionaries aren’t to teach people how to speak, they’re for people trying to understand what someone else said.
Which is literally my whole point.
Over centuries, words change
https://brians.wsu.edu/2016/05/19/hock-hawk/
But you typed that very confidently, so you got that going for you at least.