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I am curious if there is any reason that English converged to using similar suffix for both comparative adjective, and for noun. For example, as shown in the title, "cleaner" could mean both the person who cleans and as an adjective, a comparative of clean.

In the pursuit of the answer, here are some of the observations that I made:

  1. Can I say that this only happens when we "noun-ify" verbs which are also adjectives? As another example, "fit" is both an adjective and a verb. "Fitter", hence would be both a comparative-adjective and a noun.

  2. The -or suffix usually refers to the person performing the verb in question. For instance, act and actor. Maybe the "-or" prefix comes to be "-er" only when the nounification of adjective-verbs is performed?

For completeness, my question is this: Is there a reason for why it's not "cleanor", or "fittor"? I am also happy to know if there's a consistent pattern of where "-or" is replaced with "-er", while understanding that absolute consistency and language don't necessarily go together. :)

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  • The superlative of "clean" is "cleanest". And in spoken speech, there's more of a distinction, as comparative adjectives tend to have more stress at the end compared to the agency noun. CLEE-ner = one who cleans clee-NER = more clean. That's not a hard rule, though, and even when it's followed, the difference in stress isn't usually very pronounced.
    – Acccumulation
    Commented May 7, 2022 at 4:45
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    @Acccumulation the difference is usually so small as to be non-existent. In my long and varied British Isles experience, statements such as I am the cleaner and I am the fitter offer no intonational clues as to meaning.
    – Anton
    Commented May 7, 2022 at 7:05
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    You can stress the second syllable of a comparative but only in particular contexts, to emphasise that it's a comparative. You wouldn't stress most of the time ("After I took the rubbish out the room looked much cleaner"), but if something has been cleaned a little bit but not very much, your parent might say "It's cleanER but it's not clean".
    – Stuart F
    Commented May 7, 2022 at 10:02
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    This question discusses when -or and -er are used for agent nouns. It answers most of the question, but not why comparatives use -er.
    – Stuart F
    Commented May 7, 2022 at 10:04
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    The junctures of the two -er suffixes are different. Agentive of long (v) is longer 'one who longs', pronounced /'lɔŋər/; comparative of long (adj) is longer, pronounced /'lɔŋɡər/, with /ŋɡ/ instead of just /ŋ/.
    – John Lawler
    Commented May 7, 2022 at 18:16

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