Devisor

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An individual who creates a legal document to distribute their property after death ; a number that divides another number evenly without leaving a remainder
2. Someone who drafts a testament specifying how assets should be allocated after passing away ; a number that can be multiplied by another to yield the original number accurately
3. A person responsible for establishing a testamentary disposition of belongings ; an integer that divides another exactly, indicating factorization

Etymology: In English law, to "devise" property is to leave it to someone in a will, and the word once meant simply to divide or distribute. It comes from Old French "deviser," which descends from Latin "divisare," a frequentative form of "dividere," "to divide." A devisor is the person who makes such a bequest, so the legal sense is literally about dividing up an estate. The mathematical sense comes from the same Latin root by a different path. A divisor is a number that divides another evenly, from Latin "divisor," "a divider." The two words are spelled almost identically but are separate English formations, so "devisor" is a spelling that readers often confuse with the mathematical term.

Synonyms: creator, originator