placer

place +‎ -er (“suffix forming agent noun”)

• IPA^(key): /ˈpleɪsə(ɹ)/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪsə(ɹ)

placer (plural placers)

1. One who places or arranges something.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Edmund Spenser to this entry?)

2. (slang) One who deals in stolen goods; a fence.[1]

• (one who places):
• (dealer in stolen goods): fence, receiver

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

placer (plural placers)

1. (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.
   • 1951, Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, Problems of Infancy and Childhood, Volume 4, page 101,

     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 […] .

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

     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.

• cade, poddy
• imprinting

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈplæsə(ɹ)/, /ˈpleɪsə(ɹ)/
• Rhymes: -æsə(ɹ)
• Rhymes: -eɪsə(ɹ)

placer (not comparable)

1. (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
   • 1995, Paul T. Craddock, Early Metal Mining and Production, page 110:

     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.

   • 2002, Philip Ball, The Elements: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford 2004, page 46:

     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.

   • 2008, Tanyo Ravicz, Of Knives and Men, Alaskans, page 77,

     He still ran a placer mine in the Interior.

placer (plural placers)

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

• Placer County

• carpel, craple, parcel

From place +‎ -er.

• IPA^(key): /pla.se/

• audio

  (file)

placer

1. to place (to put in a specific location)
2. to seat (To put an object into a place where it will rest)
3. (reflexive) to place (to earn a given spot in a competition)

This verb is part of a group of -er verbs for which ‘c’ is softened to a ‘ç’ before the vowels ‘a’ and ‘o’.

• German: platzieren
• Romanian: plasa

• “placer” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• claper

• IPA^(key): /plaˈtser/

placer (uncountable)

1. pleasure

placer

1. to please

plācer

1. first-person singular present passive subjunctive of plācō

• (Castilian) IPA^(key): /plaˈθeɾ/
• (Latin America) IPA^(key): /plaˈseɾ/

From Latin placēre, present active infinitive of placeō, with an irregular phonetic development, by preserving the initial consonant cluster. Compare Portuguese prazer.

placer (first-person singular present plazco, first-person singular preterite plací, past participle placido)

1. to like (something or someone)
2. (literary) to please (somebody)

• gustar

placer m (plural placeres)

1. pleasure; something done to please

• complacer

Related to placel ‘sandbank’, from plaza ‘place’.

placer m (plural placeres)

1. (geology, mining) placer
2. (nautical) sandbank