-or

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-or1 suffix of agent-nouns repr. ult. (i) L. -or chiefly as appended to pp. stems, as in the comp. forms -TOR, -ATOR, -itor, and -(s)sor (e.g. censor, oppressor, sponsor); (ii L. -ātōrem, -itōrem (nom. -ātor, -itor), whence OF. -ëo(u)r, later and mod. -eur (see -OUR1). It has been generalized in legal use for the terms corr. to those in -EE1. In, e.g., bachelor, chancellor, sailor, -or has superseded other endings.