Trustors

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person or entity that establishes a trust, transferring assets to be managed according to specific terms for beneficiaries
2. One who entrusts property or funds to a trustee for legal management
3. An individual or organization that initiates a fiduciary relationship by placing assets in the care of another to benefit specified parties

Etymology: "Trustors" is the plural of "trustor," a noun for the person or organization who sets up a trust by handing assets to a trustee for the benefit of others. The word is formed plainly from "trust" and the agent suffix "-or," the same ending found in words like "donor" and "settlor," which lets English name the one who performs an action. The "-or" ending has a longer journey than the word it attaches to. It descends from a Proto-Indo-European element that passed into Latin as "-tor," where it marked a doer of an action. Latin "-ator" and "-tor" forms came into Old French as "-eor" and then "-our," and Middle English adopted that spelling, later reshaped in English as "-or." So the suffix is a Latin inheritance carried through French, while "trust" itself is native English.