Caregiver vs. Caretaker

Hello, welcome to A Way with Words.

Hi, my name is Katie Hooper. I’m calling from Dallas, Texas.

Hi, Katie. Welcome to the show.

Hi, Katie.

What’s up?

So my question has to do with the words caregiver and caretaker. I’ve noticed that I tend to use them interchangeably, but then we think of the words giver and taker as opposite. So it’s interesting to me that caregiver and caretaker would mean the same thing. So I guess my question is, do they actually mean the same thing or are there times when one is the right one to use?

Yeah, I think for a lot of people, the term caretaker is more like somebody who’s hired to take care of property or something. Like a place instead of a person.

Yeah, yeah. Like a janitor or a groundskeeper. Caretaker is the older word. Caregiver really took off in this country in the 1960s. And in Britain, you often hear carer instead of caretaker or caregiver. But caregiver is the later word, and I do associate that much more with looking after a person, whether it’s a child or an ailing parent or something like that.

Okay, that’s interesting. So caregiver for a person and then caretaker more for like a property or a house or something like that. At least in this country. That’s how it’s come down. But it wasn’t always the case. Caretaker used to be the primary term because, what, 1960s for caregiver? It’s not.

Yeah.

Yeah. And then it really took off.

Yeah.

But I would be interested to know what your colleagues think about that.

Okay. Well, I’ll ask around, but I will go with caregiver for people from now on.

Yeah.

Yeah. I think it’s just more personal, but that’s kind of a gut feeling I have.

Yeah. Thank you so much for your call, Katie. We really appreciate it.

Okay. Thank you so much.

All right. Take care now.

Bye-bye.

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