responder

Etymology

It is formed from English respond + -er, an agent noun from the verb.^[2][3][4][5] The revised OED compares French répondeur (“a person who responds”), recorded in Old French from the 12th century.^[2] The verb respond is respondre, from Latin respondeō (“to promise in return, answer”), formed from re- (“back”) and spondeō (“to promise, pledge”), the source of sponsor and spouse.^[3][6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, from 1822, is an architectural term, the same as a respond, a half-pillar that carries one end of an arch;^[2] the OED thinks this form goes back to a misreading of the Middle English plural respondes in an edition of royal wills printed in 1780.^[2] The ordinary sense, a person who answers, follows in 1825.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline dates the use of persons to 1834 and that of devices to 1867, in telegraphy,^[3] while the 1989 edition of the OED had the person only from 1879^[8] and Dictionary.com dates the word to 1875–80.^[5] In bridge the responder is the partner of the player who opens the bidding (1931).^[2][4] From 1897 the word named an apparatus that reacts to some input; about 1900 it was an early radio receiver with a liquid electrolyte, now historical,^[2][4] and since 1945 a device that answers a received radio signal by sending one of its own, a transponder.^[2][3][4] In medicine and biology a responder is, from 1937, a person, animal or cell that reacts to a treatment or stimulus.^[2] Wiktionary also records a person who answers an emergency call, as in first responder.^[1]

Timeline

• 1822 – (architecture) a respond, a half-pillar supporting an arch (rare).^[2]
• 1825 – a person who responds or replies.^[2] Etymonline dates this use to 1834.^[3]
• 1897 – a device that reacts to some form of input.^[2]
• 1900 – an early electrolytic radio receiver.^[2][4]
• 1931 – in bridge, the partner of the opening bidder.^[2][4]
• 1937 – a person or cell that reacts to a treatment or stimulus.^[2]
• 1945 – a device that retransmits a signal on receiving one; a transponder.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who answers or responds, as to a question, an appeal or a kindness; a respondent.^[9][2]
2. A person who comes to deal with an emergency, as in first responder.^[1]
3. (bridge) The partner of the player who opened the bidding.^[2][4]
4. (medicine) A patient, animal or cell that reacts to a treatment or stimulus, especially favourably.^[2][9]
5. A device that reacts to a signal or other input; especially the part of a transponder that sends back a radio signal.^[9][2]
6. The main charge of an explosive that needs a separate initiator to set it off.^[9]

Word family

• transponder

Related words

• respond
• response
• respondent
• correspond
• sponsor
• spouse

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster