subscriber

Etymology

It is formed from English subscribe + -er.^[2][3][4][5] The verb is from Latin subscrībō (“to write underneath, sign one's name”),^[5][6] from sub- (“under”) and scrībō (“to write”).^[5][6] English had the slightly earlier subscriver (1562–1738), formed from subscrive, in the same senses.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who signs his or her name to a document or letter; a signatory: 1574, in the Brieff Discours of the troubles at Frankfurt.^[2] Etymonline and Dictionary.com date the word to the 1590s.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

Signing one's name implied assent, so from 1653 a subscriber (to) was also someone who agreed with or supported an opinion or policy.^[2] From 1671 it was a person who pledged money to a company or a cause,^[2][3] and after 1725 also one who paid regularly to receive a periodical or belong to a society.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as one who subscribes and one who contributes to an undertaking.^[7] The Bell Telephone Company used it of customers who paid for a telephone line by 1878,^[5] and the OED records it from 1981 for people who join an electronic newsgroup or mailing list.^[2] In the New York Stock Exchange a subscriber was a non-member who paid for access to part of the Exchange, a sense recorded from 1865.^[2] The writer of a letter to the editor could refer to himself as the subscriber, and this became a colloquial way of saying I.^[5]

Timeline

• 1574 – a person who signs a document; a signatory.^[2]
• 1590s – first record according to Etymonline and Dictionary.com.^[5][4]
• 1653 – an adherent or supporter of an opinion.^[2]
• 1671 – a person who pledges money to a company or cause.^[2]
• 1725 – a person who pays for a periodical or membership.^[2]
• 1865 – a paying non-member of the New York Stock Exchange.^[2]
• 1878 – a telephone customer.^[5]
• 1981 – a member of an electronic newsgroup or mailing list.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who pays regularly to receive a periodical, belong to a society or use a service: The magazine lost half its subscribers in a year.^[2][8][3]
2. A customer of a telephone, internet or similar service; also, a person who signs up to a mailing list or an online channel.^[8][2]
3. A person who signs a document; a signatory.^[8][2][3][7]
4. A person who agrees with or supports an opinion or cause; an adherent.^[8][2][3]
5. A person who pledges money to a fund or undertaking; a contributor.^[8][2][7]

Word family

• nonsubscriber

Related words

• subscription
• scribe
• script
• subscript

References

1. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b c 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster