suitor

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sutour, also suitour and seutour,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman seuter (“follower, adherent”), also seutour and suitor,^[4][5][6][2] which is from Latin secūtor (“attendant, follower, pursuer”),^[4][7][6][8] remodelled after suite, the source of suit.^[4][5] Etymonline allows that the English word may also come directly from the Latin, which it calls Late Latin, whereas the OED calls it classical.^[3][4] The Latin noun is formed from secūtus, the past participle of sequor (“to follow”),^[7][8][9] from Proto-Indo-European *sekw- (“to follow”).^[3][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A frequenter of a place: about 1300, in a life of John the Evangelist, a rare sense of the word.^[4][3] The surname of Benedictus le Seuter (1206) may imply an earlier use, although the OED can't say whether it reflects the English or the Anglo-Norman word.^[4][10]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant someone who follows, in the sense of an adherent or disciple and of a member of a retinue, from before 1398 to 1830.^[4][3][2] In feudal law, from about 1400, a suitor was a tenant who had to attend a superior's court, and in 1602 also one who had to use a particular mill; the Anglo-Norman word already had the court sense, and medieval Latin in Britain had the mill sense.^[4][10] It then came to mean a petitioner, from 1414, and a plaintiff in a lawsuit, from 1454, senses close to those of sue.^[4][3][9] The modern sense, a man seeking to marry a woman, is modelled on the corresponding sense of suit.^[4] The revised OED dates it to about 1555, ahead of the 1580s in Etymonline.^[4][3] Johnson (1755) gave petitioner first and wooer second.^[11] A verb, to court, is recorded from 1672, in Shadwell,^[4] and Merriam-Webster quotes Scott for it.^[8] The feminine suitress is recorded from 1714.^[3] Since 1967 the word has also been used of a company seeking to buy another.^[4]

Timeline

• 1206 – the surname le Seuter, possibly reflecting the word.^[4]
• c. 1300 – a frequenter of a place.^[4][3]
• before 1398 – an adherent, a follower, a member of a retinue (obsolete by 1830).^[4]
• c. 1400 – a tenant bound to attend a superior's court.^[4]
• 1414 – a petitioner.^[4]
• 1454 – a plaintiff in a lawsuit.^[4]
• c. 1555 – a man courting a woman with a view to marriage.^[4] Etymonline dates this to the 1580s.^[3]
• 1672 – verb, to court.^[4]
• 1967 – a prospective buyer of a company.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who courts another, traditionally a man seeking to marry a woman: Her father turned away every suitor.^[12][8][4]
2. (law) A party who brings a lawsuit; a plaintiff.^[12][8][4]
3. A company or person seeking to buy a business, especially by a takeover bid.^[4][5]
4. (archaic) A person who makes a request; a petitioner.^[12][8][4]
5. (feudal law) A tenant bound to attend a superior's court.^[8][4][5]
6. (obsolete, 1398–1830) A follower; a member of a retinue.^[8][4][5]

Verb

1. (archaic) To court; to act as a suitor.^[8][4][5]

Word family

• suitorship
• suitress

Related words

• suit
• sue
• suite
• sequel

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 j 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 q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins