Supporter

How to spell supporter

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce supporter

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does supporter mean?

1. nounA person who actively backs a team, cause, person, or organisation.
2. nounA device or garment worn to brace or hold up part of the body.

Supporter in a sentence

• Every supporter wore the club colours to the match.

• The physiotherapist recommended a knee supporter for his weekly runs.

• She became a loyal supporter of the local charity after volunteering there.

• After the sprain she wore an ankle supporter for several weeks.

Where does supporter come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin verb supportare, which literally meant 'to carry up' or 'to bring up from below', formed from sub, meaning 'up from under', and portare, meaning 'to carry'. By the time it reached medieval Latin and Old French as supporter, the sense had shifted from physically carrying a load to the figurative idea of bearing, sustaining, or enduring something. English borrowed the verb 'support' in the late fourteenth century, and the agent noun 'supporter', meaning one who sustains or backs another, was in use by the fifteenth century. The same portare root underlies a whole family of familiar words including 'transport', 'import', 'export', and 'porter', all of which involve carrying. Knowing that the spelling keeps the double letters of 'support' plus a plain '-er' helps fix the form, since the trap is simply remembering the unstressed final '-er' rather than '-or'.

How the word is built

• sup- (variant of sub-: up from under)
• port (from Latin portare: to carry)
• -er (one who does the action)