People who give information about someone's wrongdoing to authorities, often secretly or for payment.
From Middle English and Old French 'informer,' from Latin 'informare' meaning 'to shape or form.' The sense shifted to 'give information' in the 14th century, with the agent noun 'informer' appearing in the 16th century.
Informers have shaped history—think of the Gestapo informants in WWII or modern whistleblowers like Edward Snowden. The word reveals how societies have always wrestled with the moral gray area between loyalty and justice.
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