visitor

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈvɪz.ɪ.tə/, US /ˈvɪz.ɪ.t̬ɚ/^[1]

Etymology

It is an agent noun from visit and partly borrowed from Anglo-Norman visitour, Old French visiteor, visitor, inspector,^[2][3][4] from visiter, to visit.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

One who visits officially to inspect, such as a churchman appointed to visit religious houses: 1426 in the OED;^[5] the late 14th century in Etymonline.^[2]

Semantic evolution

A person who visits the poor or sick from charitable motives is from about 1430,^[5] and one who pays a social visit to a person or household from 1607.^[5] Etymonline notes that a visitor stays longer than a caller and shares more of the social life of the house.^[2] The official sense survives for the person with a right of supervision over a college or institution (1553).^[5]

Timeline

• 1426 – an official inspector.^[5]
• c. 1430 – a charitable visitor.^[5]
• 1553 – a supervisor of an institution.^[5]
• 1607 – a social visitor, a guest.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A person who visits a person or place; a guest, caller or tourist.
2. A person with the right to inspect and supervise an institution such as a college.

Word family

• visitorial

Related words

• visit
• visitation
• vision

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press