Auditour

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An archaic spelling for an official appointed to examine financial accounts ; one who listens to or hears a speech or performance
2. A former term for a person charged with checking business records for accuracy ; a person who hears something being said or performed
3. Obsolete form denoting a person who inspects account books for errors ; a person who attends and listens to a speaker or recital

Etymology: "Auditour" is an older spelling of "auditor," and it arrived in English from Anglo-Norman, the French dialect spoken by the Norman elite after 1066. Anglo-Norman "auditour" was itself taken from Latin "audītor," meaning "hearer" or "listener," formed from the verb "audire," "to hear." The same root gives English "audience," "audible," and "audio," so a person who audits accounts is, etymologically, someone who listens closely to what is being reported. The Latin sense of "hearer" is the one that survives in the original meaning: an auditor was first a person who listened, and the accounting sense grew from that role of hearing a report and checking it. The spelling with "-our" reflects its French route, which is why this form looked distinctly foreign on the page before English spelling settled on "-or."