Sponsorship

How to spell sponsorship

11 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce sponsorship

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sponsorship mean?

1. nounFinancial or other support given to a person, event, or organisation, usually in exchange for advertising or in fulfilment of a formal obligation.

Sponsorship in a sentence

• The marathon secured sponsorship from a local bank to cover its costs.

• Her visa application relied on sponsorship from a registered employer.

Where does sponsorship come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word builds on 'sponsor', which English took directly from the Latin sponsor, meaning 'one who gives a solemn pledge or guarantee'. That noun grew from the verb spondere, 'to promise solemnly' or 'to pledge', the same root that gives us 'spouse' and 'respond'. In Roman law a sponsor was a surety, someone who formally vouched for another, and the religious sense of a godparent who pledges on a child's behalf carried into English in the 1600s. The native English ending '-ship', from Old English '-scipe' meaning a state, condition, or relationship, was then attached to form 'sponsorship', describing the role or arrangement of being a sponsor. The modern commercial sense, where a company funds an event or athlete in return for promotion, is a twentieth-century development. The spelling trap sits in the unstressed middle: it ends '-sor', not '-ser', because of that Latin agent ending.

How the word is built

• spons- (from Latin spondere: to pledge, promise)
• -or (agent noun suffix)
• -ship (state or relationship)