Sponsor

How to spell sponsor

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sponsor

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sponsor mean?

1. nounA person or organisation that pays for or supports an event, activity, or person, often in return for advertising or goodwill.
2. verbTo provide funds or support for a person, event, or activity, often publicly.

Sponsor in a sentence

• noun

  The marathon found a new sponsor to cover the entry costs.

• verb

  A local bank agreed to sponsor the youth football league this season.

• noun

  Each sponsor received a logo on the team's shirts.

• verb

  Several relatives offered to sponsor her in the charity walk.

Where does sponsor come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes straight from the Latin sponsor, meaning 'a surety' or 'one who gives a solemn promise on behalf of another', formed from the verb spondere, which literally meant 'to pledge' or 'to make a binding vow'. In ancient Rome the term carried a religious and legal weight, since a sponsor was someone who guaranteed a contract or pledge. English adopted the word in the early 1600s, initially in the Christian sense of a godparent, the person who pledges religious responsibility for a child at baptism. From there the meaning broadened to anyone who vouches for, supports, or financially backs another person or undertaking, and by the twentieth century it picked up its now familiar commercial sense in broadcasting and advertising. The same spondere root also gives us 'respond', 'spouse', and 'despondent', all of which trace back to the idea of pledging oneself. The spelling trap is the unstressed ending, which sounds like 'er' but is written '-or', echoing the Latin agent ending.

How the word is built

• spons- (from Latin spondere: to promise or pledge)
• -or (agent/noun suffix denoting one who does the action)