suitor

English

Alternative forms

• suitour (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English sutour, from Anglo-Norman suytour, seuter, from Late Latin secutor (“follower, pursuer”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsutɚ/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsuːtə/, /ˈsjuːtə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːtə(ɹ)
• Homophone: souter

Noun

suitor (plural suitors)

1. One who pursues someone, especially a woman, for a romantic relationship or marriage; a wooer; one who falls in love with or courts someone.

   Synonyms: beau, courter, sparker, wooer; see also Thesaurus:lover

   • 1999, Martha Craven Nussbaum, Sex and Social Justice, →ISBN, page 316:

     (Notice that "Lysias" begins from the realistic assumption that an attractive young man with many suitors will "gratify" one of them, the only question being which. Rightly or wrongly, he treats the question, "Shall I at all?" as already resolved.)

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:suitor.
2. (by extension) A person or organization that expresses an interest in working with, or taking over, another.
   • 2016, Gary D. McGugan, Three Weeks Less a Day, page 43:

     […] and Mortimer asserted he had no shortage of suitors ready, willing, and able to make acquisition loans […]

   • 2023 September 21, Silas Brown, Dinesh Nair, Swetha Gopinath, “Blackstone, Permira Explore Bid for eBay-Backed Adevinta”, in Bloomberg.com‎:

     The Betaville blog wrote earlier this week about market speculation that Adevinta was attracting takeover interest, without naming the suitors.

3. (law) A party to a suit or litigation.

   Synonym: litigant

4. One who sues, petitions, solicits, or entreats; a petitioner.

   Synonyms: applicant, claimant, plaintiff, pursuer, suer

Translations

party to a suit or litigation

Bulgarian: ищец (bg) m (ištec) Czech: zájemce (cs) m French: plaideur (fr) m Irish: gearánaí m, agróir m

wooer

Armenian: երկրպագու (hy) (erkrpagu) Bulgarian: ухажор (bg) m (uhažor) Catalan: pretendent (ca) Czech: nápadník (cs) m, ctitel m Danish: beljer c, frier c Dutch: huwelijkskandidaat (nl) m or f Finnish: kosiskelija (fi) French: prétendant (fr) m, soupirant (fr) m German: Freier (de) m, Liebeswerber m Greek: μνηστήρας (el) m (mnistíras) Ancient: μνηστήρ m (mnēstḗr) Hungarian: kérő (hu) Indonesian: perayu (id) Irish: suiríoch m Italian: postulante (it) m, richiedente (it) m, corteggiatore (it) m, pretendente (it) m Latin: procus m Maori: kaimātoro Old English: wōgere m Plautdietsch: Fria m Portuguese: pretendente m or f Romanian: pețitor (ro) m Russian: покло́нник (ru) m (poklónnik), покло́нница (ru) f (poklónnica), кавале́р (ru) m (kavalér), ухажёр (ru) m (uxažór), почита́тель (ru) m (počitátelʹ), почита́тельница (ru) f (počitátelʹnica) Sorbian: Lower Sorbian: fryjaŕ m, fryjowaŕ m Spanish: pretendiente (es) n, galanteador (es) m, cortejador (es) m, cortejante n Swedish: friare (sv) c Tagalog: manliligaw Welsh: ymgeisydd (cy) m Yiddish: אָווירער m (ovirer)

Verb

suitor (third-person singular simple present suitors, present participle suitoring, simple past and past participle suitored)

1. To play the suitor; to woo; to make love.

   Synonyms: court, romance; see also Thesaurus:woo

References

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “suitor”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Anagrams

• turios

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈsu.ɪ.tɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈsuː.i.t̪or]

Verb

suitor

1. third-person singular future passive imperative of suō

Romanian

Etymology

From sui +‎ -tor.

Adjective

suitor m or n (feminine singular suitoare, masculine plural suitori, feminine and neuter plural suitoare)

1. skylark (Alauda arvensis)

Declension

Declension of suitor

		singular				plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine		masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative- accusative	indefinite	suitor		suitoare		suitori	suitoare
	definite	suitorul		suitoarea		suitorii	suitoarele
genitive- dative	indefinite	suitor		suitoare		suitori	suitoare
	definite	suitorului		suitoarei		suitorilor	suitoarelor

Noun

suitor m (plural suitori)

1. Alauda arvensis

Declension

Declension of suitor

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	suitor	suitorul		suitori	suitorii
genitive-dative	suitor	suitorului		suitori	suitorilor
vocative	suitorule			suitorilor

References

• suitor in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN