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''placer'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260313192153-00-⌔

placer - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

placer (plural placers)

  • One who places or arranges something.
    • ✤ Thou placer of plants both humble and tall1
  • (slang) One who deals in stolen goods; a fence.2
  • (gambling, in combination) A horse, etc. that finishes in a particular place in a race.
    • ✤ *a third-placer *

Noun

placer (plural placers)

  • (ethology, sheep, Australia, New Zealand) A lamb whose mother has died and which has transferred its attachment to an object, such as a bush or rock, in the locality.
    • ✤ This is a “placer” sheep, as it is called. The prerequisites to this condition are that the young sheep must be still nursing, but must have begun to nibble grass. It must be the young of a mother that has been somewhat isolated, away from the corral and away from the herd, by herself out on the prairie. Now, when the mother dies, the lamb remains close to the mother′s body […].3
    • ✤ In Australia “placer” lambs are also destroyed, for these too are of little use; they will return constantly to one place, not staying with the flock.4

Adjective

placer (not comparable)

  • (mining) alluvial; occurring in a deposit of sand or earth on a river-bed or bank, particularly with reference to precious metals such as gold or silver
    • ✤ * Placer gold comes from the weathering of the primary veins releasing the gold to be transported by water action and concentrated in gravel or sand beds.*5
    • ✤ Since time immemorial, people found that they could extract the gold from placer deposits by sifting the fine-grained material through a mesh: the technique of panning.6
    • ✤ He still ran a placer mine in the Interior.7

Noun

placer (plural placers)

  • A place where the superficial detritus is washed for gold, etc.
  • (by extension) Any place holding treasures.

Etymology 1

From place + -er (agent noun suffix).

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈpleɪsə(ɹ)/
  • Audio (Australian): 🔊
  • Rhymes: -eɪsə(ɹ)

Etymology 2

From place +‎ -er (suffix apparently denoting association).

Etymology 3

From American Spanish placer, from earlier placel, apparently from obsolete Portuguese placel.

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈplæsə(ɹ)/, /ˈpleɪsə(ɹ)/
    • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
    • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
  • Rhymes: -æsə(ɹ)
  • Rhymes: -eɪsə(ɹ)

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

  1. 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “Februarie. Ægloga Secunda.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC: ↩

  2. 2011, Jonathon Green, Crooked Talk: Five Hundred Years of the Language of Crime, page 104 — The 20th-century buyer is self-explanatory, while the placer is a middle-man who places stolen goods with a purchaser. ↩

  3. 1951, Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, Problems of Infancy and Childhood, volume 4, page 101: ↩

  4. 1971, American Society of Animal Science. Journal of Animal Science, Volume 32, Pages 601-1298, page 1281, ↩

  5. 1995, Paul T. Craddock, Early Metal Mining and Production, page 110: ↩

  6. 2002, Philip Ball, The Elements: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, published 2004, page 46: ↩

  7. 2008, Tanyo Ravicz, Of Knives and Men: Alaskans, page 77: ↩

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Secondary

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