Machines or devices that cut materials into small strips or pieces, commonly used for destroying documents. Can also refer to people or things that tear or cut into shreds.
From 'shred' (Old English 'screade' meaning 'piece cut off') plus the agent suffix '-er.' The mechanical device sense emerged in the 20th century with increasing need for document security.
Paper shredders became symbols of both corporate paranoia and environmental consciousness - simultaneously representing secrecy and recycling. The crosscut pattern was developed specifically to thwart spies trying to reassemble strip-cut documents during the Cold War.
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