What it means
An overly eager person, especially in school or at work. The one who always has their hand up, arrives early, stays late, and volunteers for everything. Not quite a teacher's pet because keeners often do not realise they are being keen. Canadians use it with a gentle eye-roll rather than real malice. Everyone knows a keener and secretly benefits from their energy.
Usage examples
"She colour-coded the entire group project two weeks before it was due and made a shared spreadsheet with deadlines. Total keener, but honestly we would have failed without her."
"There's always one keener who's done the reading before the term even starts."
"Don't be such a keener, you don't have to answer every single question in class."
"Of course Ben already made study notes for the midterm and it's still week one. Absolute keener."
"I wasn't even gonna apply for the committee till that keener dropped a whole speech in the group chat at 8 a.m."
Where it comes from
This is mainly a Canadian use built from keen plus the person ending -er. Keen has been around in English for ages for someone sharp or eager, and keener turned into the teasing noun for the person who's trying a bit too hard. It really lives in Canadian school and office chat.
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