sender

Etymology

It is formed from English send + -er,^[2][3][4][5] first recorded as Middle English sendere.^[6][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

One who sends or bestows something: the OED's first record is about 1200, in the Trinity College Homilies;^[2] Etymonline dates the sense "one who bestows something" to about 1200.^[3]

Semantic evolution

By the mid 15th century the word also meant a person who sends someone on a mission.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as "he that sends", quoting Shakespeare's Henry V.^[7] The telegraph and telephone gave it technical senses: the transmitting instrument, from 1879,^[2][4] and the person who signals a message, from 1904 in the OED, though Etymonline finds the telegraphic use by 1863.^[2][3] In boxing slang of the mid 19th century a sender was a hard blow, perhaps one that sends the opponent to the floor.^[8] In the 1930s, from the jazz slang sense of send, "to thrill", it came to mean a musician or a record that excites listeners;^[2][3][8] solid sender was a popular musician.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – one who sends or bestows something.^[2][3]
• mid 15th century – one who sends someone on a mission.^[3]
• 1849 – boxing slang, a hard blow.^[8]
• 1879 – the transmitter of a telephone or telegraph.^[2] Etymonline finds the telegraphic use by 1863.^[3]
• 1904 – one who signals a message.^[2]
• 1935 – slang, a musician or record that thrills listeners.^[2][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who sends something, such as a letter or parcel: If the address is wrong, the parcel goes back to the sender.^[9][4][2]
2. A transmitter in a telegraph, telephone or radio system.^[9][4][2]
3. A person who signals a message.^[2]
4. (slang, dated) A musician or record that thrills listeners.^[2][8]

Related words

• send
• sendee

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ a b c d e Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
9. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster