Punter

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈpʌn.tə(ɹ)/

Definitions

1. Someone who places bets, especially on sports or horse racing ; a person who buys goods or services from a business ; an individual who moves a flat-bottomed boat by pushing a pole against the riverbed
2. An individual involved in wagering money on events ; a person considered as a buyer or user of a service ; a boat operator who propels their craft using a long pole in shallow water
3. A gambler making risked stakes often in betting contexts ; a client or patron of an establishment ; one who drives a punt by pushing it through water with a pole

Etymology: The word "punter" is a bit of a family reunion of three unrelated senses, each built on a different verb or noun "punt" plus the agent suffix "-er". The gambling sense comes from "punt", a card game of faro, where a player bets against the bank; the word for a gambler who places a wager came from that game's vocabulary. The boatman sense grows from "punt", a flat-bottomed boat that is driven along by pushing a long pole against the riverbed, so a punter is simply the person who works that pole. The customer sense is the most recent and the least obvious. Its link to the gambling sense is that a punter is someone who "places a bet" on a service or product, taking a chance on it, which shifted in British slang into a general term for a buyer. The third sense, from "punt" meaning to kick a ball, is a separate branch again, so the three meanings share a spelling but not a single line of descent from one object.

Synonyms: gambler, bettor, player, wagerer