者
zhě · HSK 3
one who
者 = the one who does something; nominal suffix turning a verb into a doer
Attach 者 to a verb or descriptor to name the person who does it: 学者 scholar (learn-er), 读者 reader, 作者 author. Think of it as the Chinese counterpart to English -er or -ist.
者 — old/elder 耂 + say 曰
Originally depicted sugarcane or a similar plant, but the form was reanalyzed as 耂 (old) over 曰 (say). It became a grammatical suffix meaning 'one who…' or 'the…thing,' nominalizing verbs and adjectives. Today 者 mainly marks agents or categories, as in 学者 'scholar' or 记者 'reporter.'