Admitter

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who allows or grants entry to a place or event
2. Someone responsible for letting people in or granting access
3. An individual who permits admission into a location or group

Etymology: The word is a plain agent noun: the verb "admit" with the suffix "-er" added to name the person who performs the action. The suffix has a long ancestry. It descends from Proto-Indo-European forms and passed through Proto-Italic and Latin "-arius", which denoted a person connected with something, into Proto-Germanic and Old English as "-ere". It reached Middle English as "-er" and later attached to English verbs freely. "Admit" itself comes from Latin "admittere", meaning "to send to" or "to let in", built from "ad-" ("to") and "mittere" ("to send"). English took the verb through Old French, so the same sending-in idea that gives "admit" its sense of granting entry is what the agent noun keeps. A doorkeeper at a club or hospital, or a clerk who checks people into a building, fits the word's meaning exactly.

Synonyms: confessor, acknowledger, declarer, proclaimer, revealer

Antonyms: denier, refuser, rejector, concealer, dissenter