Assertor

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who confidently states or declares something as true
2. An individual who puts forward a statement or claim with assurance
3. Someone who affirms or maintains a proposition or belief with conviction

Etymology: Assertor is a plain formation: the verb "assert" plus the agent suffix "-or", meaning one who does the asserting. The verb itself came into English from Latin "asserere," which combined "ad" (to) with "serere" (to join or bind), so its earliest sense was to join oneself to a cause or to claim something in public. The agent suffix arrived by a longer route. It descends from Latin "-tor," which Latin took from "-ātor" and which reached English through Old French "-eor" and Middle English "-our" before settling into the modern "-or" spelling. The result is a noun for a person who stands behind a statement and insists on its truth. Because the word simply attaches a tool-like ending to a verb, its meaning follows directly from the verb: a person who asserts, in the sense of firmly declaring a proposition or belief.

Synonyms: claimant, advocate, proponent