Pronounced: ZER-ik or ZEER-ik, adj
Notes: I should have been able to guess at the meaning
Yesterday’s word
The word waitron is a person who waits tables (as in a restaurant) : waiter/waitress/waitperson
Background
This word was created by blending waiter/waitress with the -tron suffix, which may be an allusion to the machine-like impersonality of those who wait tables. It also may have been taken from neutron; assumed to come from neutral and thus reference the gender-neutrality of waitron. Personally, I have no problem with the traditional words of waiter and waitress. In the current society, there is a very vocable segment pushing for gender-neutrality, so words like waitron are becoming more common. This word is slightly disparaging; the more popular term these days is server.
First usage
This is a relatively recent word, appearing in print in 1980.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 