sponsor
Definitions
General English
- noun a person or company that pays to financially help a sport, an exhibition or a music festival, in return for the right to advertise at sporting events, on sports clothes or programmes
- noun a company which pays part of the cost of making a TV or radio programme by advertising on the programme
- noun a person who pays money to a charity when someone else walks, swims, or runs a certain distance
- noun a person who takes responsibility for someone
- verb to be the god-parent of a child and promise to help the child to lead a Christian life
Banking
- noun a company which pays part of the cost of making a TV programme by taking advertising time on the programme
- noun a person or company which pays money to help research or to pay for a business venture
- noun a company which pays to help a sport, in return for advertising rights
- noun an organisation, such as a merchant bank, which backs a new share issue
- verb to act as a sponsor for something
- verb to play an active part in something, such as a pension plan for employees
Commerce
- noun a person who recommends another person for a job
Construction
- Any person or institution representing the owner. See also owner.
Human Resources
- verb to recommend someone for a job
- verb to pay for someone to go on a training course
Information & Library Science
- noun a person or organisation that pays all or part of the expenses for an event or period of study
- verb to pay to support an activity or person
Media Studies
- noun a person or a business that pays for radio or television programming by buying advertising time
Politics
- noun a person or group such as a trade union which pays money towards the expenses of an MP or candidate
- noun an MP who introduces a bill in the House of Commons
- verb to support the expenses of an MP or candidate
Travel
- noun a company which pays for a radio or TV programme as a way of advertising its products
- verb to pay money to help business development in return for advertising
Origin & History of “sponsor”
Etymologically, a sponsor is someone who makes a ‘solemn promise’. The word was borrowed from Latin sponsor, a derivative of spondēre ‘promise solemnly’, which denoted ‘someone who stands surely for another’. In the Christian era it came to be used for a ‘godparent’, which was its original sense in English. From the same source come English despond, respond, spouse, and probably spontaneous (17th c.).
