A device attached to a gun or exhaust pipe that reduces the noise it makes.
From the verb silence (from Latin silentium) combined with the agent suffix -er, meaning 'one that silences.' This compound word was created in the early 1900s as the technology developed.
Despite what movies show, gun silencers (suppressors) don't make shots nearly silent—they typically reduce noise from 160 decibels to about 135 decibels, more like going from a jet engine to a lawn mower. The term 'silencer' is actually a misnomer created by marketing.
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