Or complainer…
Comment on Why English language is sometimes "lazy", sometimes not
Thavron@lemmy.ca 6 days agoA plaintiff, for example, is the person lodging a complaint. Doesn’t have to be a legal complaint, but in legal terms it makes it very clear who we’re talking about.
I think the OP was wondering why that person wouldn’t just be called a complaintlodger. Like with firefighter.
Bridger@sh.itjust.works 6 days ago
litchralee@sh.itjust.works 6 days ago
A quick “rule” is to see how old the word/concept is. “plaintiff” would have existed almost as long as the English legal system came into being, or probably even older to the [court of Assizes](en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assizes] pre-12th century.
Whereas firefighter as a profession might have only become a word after the establishment of fire department by insurance companies, which I think might have been a 19th century development.