Promiser

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who guarantees to undertake a specific action or fulfill an obligation in a relationship or agreement
2. An individual who commits to doing something in the future or upholding an agreement
3. Someone who expresses an intention to perform a certain act or meet an expectation

Etymology: "Promiser" is about as transparent as English words get: it is "promise" with the agent suffix "-er" attached, so it names one who makes promises. The suffix does the same job in "singer" or "teacher," turning a verb into a noun for the person performing the action. "Promise" itself came into English from Old French "promesse," which in turn came from Latin "promissum," the neuter past participle of "promittere," meaning "to send forth" or "to promise," built from "pro" (forward) and "mittere" (to send). Because "promiser" is simply a regular suffixed formation, it carries no special history of its own; its meaning follows directly from the parts. The interest lies mainly in the verb it grows from, whose original Latin sense of sending something forward in time gave rise to the modern idea of a pledge about the future.

Synonyms: guarantor, pledger