debtor

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English dettour, also detour and dettere,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman detour, also dettur,^[3][2][5] and Old French detor,^[4][6][7] and directly borrowed from Latin dēbitor.^{[3][2][8][4][6]} The Latin noun is formed from the stem of dēbitus, the past participle of dēbeō (“to owe”), with the agent suffix -tor.^[3][6][8][9] Etymonline explains dēbeō as originally "to keep something away from someone", from dē- (“away”) and habeō (“to have”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰeh₁bʰ- (“to give or receive”).^[3] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from the mid-12th century.^[5] French later spelled it with a b after Latin, and English took up the b between about 1560 and 1668, first in legal documents, helped there by the parallel form debitor.^[4][3] It is related to debt.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

One who owes an obligation or duty: in the Ancrene Riwle (about 1225),^[4] where the Lord is said to deal with us as one deals with a bad debtor.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to about 1200.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The Anglo-Norman word already covered a debt of gratitude, a debt of money or goods, and a trespasser who owed atonement for a sin,^[5] and English took over all three: the biblical sense survives in the Lord's Prayer, "as we forgive our debtors".^[10][9] The sense of owing money is recorded from about 1290.^[4] Chaucer used dettour four times.^[11] The b crept into the spelling in the 16th and 17th centuries, and the 1611 Bible still has detter and debter three times each, debtor twice and debtour once.^[4][3] In bookkeeping the word named the debit side of an account from the early 18th century,^[4] and Johnson (1755) gave this as his third sense, after "he that owes something to another" and "one that owes money".^[12] In several US states a poor debtor was a person jailed for debt who could be released on proving poverty (1831).^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – one who owes an obligation or duty.^[4][2]
• c. 1290 – one who owes money.^[4]
• 1560–1668 – the spelling with b comes into use.^[4][3]
• 1714 – in bookkeeping, the debit side of an account.^[4]
• 1831 – poor debtor, in US law.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person, company or country that owes money to another; the opposite of a creditor: The court gave the debtors a year to pay.^[13][10][4]
2. A person who is under an obligation to another, for a favour or a duty.^[10][4][9]
3. (biblical) A person who has wronged or sinned against another.^[10][9]

Word family

• nondebtor

Related words

• debt
• debit
• debitor
• creditor
• due

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
6. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins