Bettor

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈbɛtə/

Definitions

1. A person who risks money on the result of an event participates in a form of gambling that involves predicting outcomes for potential profit
2. An individual who places financial stakes based on event outcomes engages in risk-taking behavior often leading to monetary gain
3. An individual who engages in wagering money on the outcomes of events typically involved in games of chance seeks financial rewards through their predictions

Etymology: "Bettor" is simply "bet" with the agent suffix "-or" added, so it names the person who makes the wager. The "-or" ending is the familiar one found in words like "actor" and "creditor," and it arrived in English through Middle English from Latin "-tor," which carried the sense of a doer of an action. The suffix's ancestry reaches back through Latin and beyond to Proto-Indo-European, but the word itself is a plain English formation. Because "bet" is the older word, the story of "bettor" is really the story of the suffix attached to it. Once "bet" was established as a verb and noun for staking money, adding "-or" was the natural way to name the person doing the staking, in the same way "bettor" parallels "gambler" or "better" in everyday use.

Synonyms: gambler, wagerer, punter