Lapser

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. One who temporarily fails to maintain a standard or commitment; a person who backslides in morals or behavior; an individual who lets a promise or duty slip away
2. Someone who experiences a decline in discipline or ethical conduct; an individual who relapses into previous undesirable habits; a person who allows an obligation to be neglected
3. A person prone to reverting to former faults or mistakes; one who fails to uphold a prior resolution or agreement; an individual showing a momentary or brief failure in responsibility or consistency

Etymology: The word "lapser" is simply "lapse" with the agent suffix "-er" attached, meaning one who lapses. Its meaning is literal: a person who slips back into a former state, most often a religious or moral one, such as someone who has drifted away from a faith or a habit. The suffix has a longer ancestry than the base word. The "-er" ending descends from a Latin suffix "-arius", which denoted a person connected with something, and it passed into English through Old English "-ere" and Middle English "-er", with a parallel route through Old French "-ier". So the word is a compound of a borrowed verb and a very old, widely used English ending, and its story lies mostly in the ending rather than in any dramatic twist of meaning.

Synonyms: defaulter, delinquent, transgressor, offender, violator

Antonyms: complier, adherent, follower, observer, obedient