supporter
Pluralsupporters
- 1Someone who backs a cause, movement, or political party, speaking up for it, promoting it, or following it.
The candidate thanked each supporter who knocked on doors during the campaign.
Lifelong supporters of the movement gathered to mark its anniversary.
Similarbacker, advocate, champion, adherent, follower
Note
The word is plainly built from support plus the agent suffix -er, and it was already in Middle English as supporter or supportour. In political use it takes an intensifying adjective. The 1865 Defense of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd speaks of a "warm supporter of the Government," and Susan Butler's 2006 voters' guide calls a candidate a "strong supporter" of a cause. Here the word names allegiance, not personal help to someone.
- 2A person who is a fan of a particular sports team or sportsperson.
As a devoted supporter, she never misses a home game.
Away supporters traveled hundreds of miles to watch the match.
Note
Sports writing, British football especially, uses supporter for a club's committed followers, who travel, fill grounds and jeer opponents. It readily takes a club or town name in front, as in Stoke supporters or football supporters from Bolton, and it pairs naturally with home and away. Fan is the broader, more casual word. Supporter suggests loyalty to one side, much as one backs a party in the political sense.
- 3A person who gives moral or physical help to another, or an attendant taking part in a ceremony or procession.
The groom chose his brother as his supporter for the wedding.
Each runner had a supporter waiting at the finish line to help them recover.
Note
Two quite different people share this sense: the friend who stands by someone, and the official attendant at a rite. The second belongs to formal ceremonial language. The 1937 coronation order for George VI has the King ascend "accompanied by the two Bishops his Supporters," who walk at his side. In everyday use the word leans toward the first meaning and often pairs with advocate, as in an advocate and supporter of equality.
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- 6Clipping of athletic supporter.
Every player on the team wore a supporter under his uniform.
She bought her son a new supporter before the football season began.
Note
This is a shortening of athletic supporter, the elastic garment better known as a jock strap. The full compound has a second meaning, a booster for a cheerleading team, but the clipped form refers to the garment. Someone who cheers a team on is simply a supporter in the fan sense, so context usually settles which is meant.
- 7A leg band that keeps a sock or stocking from slipping down.
Each supporter clipped neatly to the top of his stocking.
She fastened a supporter just below the knee to hold the sock in place.
Similargarter
- 8An animal or figure that holds up the shield in a coat of arms.
The royal arms feature a crowned lion as one supporter and a unicorn as the other.
Heraldic supporters often stand in mirrored poses on each side of the shield.
Note
In heraldry these figures stand beside the shield, usually in pairs. Charles Boutell's Heraldry (1864) calls the unicorn the dexter, or right-hand, Supporter of England, notes that two unicorns hold the Duke of Rutland's shield, and lists sea-lions among other beasts. Joseph Edmondson's Complete Body of Heraldry (1780) traces the custom to the fancy of seal-engravers. He adds that private persons once bore supporters too.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English supporter or supportour, formed from "support" combined with the suffix "-er".