Acquitter

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. A person who legally declares another free of guilt after a trial has concluded
2. An individual who absolves someone of accusations or culpability in a judicial setting
3. A person officially declared not responsible for a crime by a judicial process

Etymology: The word is simply "acquit" plus the agent suffix "-er", so its history is really the history of the suffix. The "-er" ending came into English through two routes that merged. One is Old English "-ere", an ancient native ending that already marked a person who does something. The other is Latin "-arius", which Old French turned into "-ier" and which reached English in Middle English as "-er" as well. Both trace back to the same Proto-Indo-European roots, so the ending is effectively the same piece of grammar arriving twice. Acquit itself comes from Old French "aquiter", meaning to set free from a debt or obligation, and later to declare innocent of a charge. Its meaning has followed a legal path: first release from a duty, then release from blame in court. An acquitter is therefore someone who performs that release, though the agent form is rarely used in modern English compared with the verb itself.

Synonyms: exonerate, absolve

Antonyms: convict, found guilty