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.
   • 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^[1]:

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

Translations

party to a suit or litigation

• Bulgarian: ищец (bg) m (ištec)
• French: plaideur (fr) m
• Irish: gearánaí m, agróir m

wooer

• Armenian: երկրպագու (hy) (erkrpagu)
• Bulgarian: ухажор (bg) m (uhažor)
• 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)
• 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.

References

• “suitor”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• turios

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 articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) suitor	suitorul	(niște) suitori	suitorii
genitive/dative	(unui) suitor	suitorului	(unor) suitori	suitorilor
vocative	suitorule		suitorilor

References

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