Note 24 — III. NOUNS

This ending is especially useful and is easily managed. It corresponds in part to the English ending er as illustrated in the words bank, banker, but it has a wider application in Portuguese, as for example: pedra, stone, pedreira, stone quarry, pedreiro, quarryman, and sometimes stone mason; sapato, shoe, sapateiro, shoemaker. The common names of many trees are similarly derived from the names of their fruits: pécego, peach, pecegueiro, peach-tree; coco, the coco-nut, coqueiro, the coco-palm.