A person who lives or works in a garret; especially a poor writer or artist living in an attic room.
From garret + -eer (agent suffix meaning 'one who does or is associated with'). The suffix -eer was borrowed from French and Spanish to create occupational or situational terms.
A garreteer was the romantic figure of Parisian bohemia—starving artists and writers living in attics, so associated with literary struggle that the word itself became poetry, a badge of artistic suffering.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.