creeper

[Amy West]

I've been noticing a term that my kids here in Worcester and their
cohorts (13 and 10 years old respectively) have been using and also
spotted in one of my student's (18-year-old freshman) papers:

They use "creeper" to mean what I would call a "creep," as in a
creepy, scary, or shady person. "He's a creeper."

I have not done my due diligence to see how widespread this is. It's
just a productive use of the -er ending to form a noun from a verb.
For them a "creeper" is someone who "creeps" around, skulking around.
There's a sense of menace in their use of "creeper" (and frankly in
my own use of "creep") that isn't captured by MW C11's definition of
"creep" (n) as "an unpleasant or obnoxious person."

[The context where I first learned the use: I was pointing out
someone at an SF con who I wanted them to avoid because he has
sexually harassed young women. "Oh, he's a creeper" was their
response, meaning if I had just said "Avoid that guy: he's a creeper"
I could have been more direct.]

---Amy West

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