shareholder

Etymology

It is formed from English share + holder,^[2][3][4][5] the first part in the sense of a portion of a company's capital, the second the agent noun of hold.^[3] That financial sense of the noun is recorded from about 1600.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who owns shares in a company or in other jointly owned property: 1755, in N. Magens's Essay on Insurances.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to about 1830 and Merriam-Webster to about 1832;^[3][6] the OED's revision of 2022 found the 1755 record, and Dictionary.com dates it to 1785–95.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The meaning has stayed close to its first record: a holder of shares in a joint-stock or incorporated company, or more widely of a share in any joint fund or property.^[3][6][2] The slightly older stockholder (1753) is used in American English to cover the meaning of shareholder as well.^[2][6] The derivative shareholding, the holding of shares, is recorded from the early 20th century.^[4]

Timeline

• 1755 – an owner of shares in a company or jointly owned venture.^[2]
• 1785–95 – first date in Dictionary.com.^[5]
• c. 1830 – first date in Etymonline.^[3]
• early 20th century – shareholding.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person or body that owns one or more shares in a company: The shareholders voted against the merger.^[7][8][2]
2. One who holds a share in any jointly owned fund or property.^[6][4][2]

Word family

• shareholding
• nonshareholder

Related words

• share

Usage notes

In the United States stockholder is the more usual word.^[2][6] American dictionaries also give shareowner as another name.^[7][5]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press