Bondholder

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An individual or entity that holds a debt security issued by a corporation or government and is entitled to receive interest payments and return of principal
2. A person or organization that owns bonds and has the right to receive interest and principal payments as specified in the bond agreement
3. Someone who possesses bonds as financial instruments, often receiving scheduled interest income and expecting repayment of the original investment at maturity

Etymology: "Bondholder" is a plain compound: "bond" joined to "holder," with no special history behind it. "Bond" comes from Old English "band," meaning something that binds, and in finance it came to mean a written promise to pay. "Holder" is the agent of "hold," a word that goes back to Old English "healdan," meaning to keep, possess, or grasp. Put together, a bondholder is simply the one who keeps possession of that written promise. The financial sense of "bond" grew out of the older legal sense of a binding written agreement, which is why a document recording a debt could be called a bond. The compound therefore describes the person or institution who owns the instrument and stands to collect its interest and repayment.

Synonyms: debtholder, creditor