responsor

Learned borrowing from Latin respōnsor. First attested in the a. 1649. By surface analysis, clipping of responsory.

• enPR: rĭ-spŏn′sər
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈspɒn.sə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): (without the cot–caught merger) /ɹɪˈspɔn.səɹ/, (cot–caught merger) /ɹɪˈspɑn.səɹ/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): (standard) /ɹɪˈspɒn.səɹ/, (dialectal) /ɹɪˈspɑn.səɹ/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈspɔn.sə/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ɹəˈspɒn.sə/
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈspɔn.səɾ/
• (India) IPA^(key): /ɾɪˈspɔn.sɜː(ɾ)/, /ɾɪˈspɔn.səɾ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒnsə(ɹ)
• Homophone: responser
• Hyphenation: re‧​spons‧or

responsor (plural responsors)

1. (electronics) A receiver used in conjunction with an interrogator to receive and interpret signals from a transponder.
   • 1947, Caldwell-Clements' Tele-Tech - Volume 6, page 64:

     The duplexing circuits are located between the interrogator and the responsor at the common feed point to the antenna transmission line.

   • 1961, Nikolaĭ Grigorʹevich Viduev, Radar in Engineering Explorations, page 31:

     The distance between two points at which radio stations are located is determined: at one point is an interrogator (radar) , at the other a responsor (radio beacon) .

   • 1961, Electronic Engineering - Volume 33, page 415:

     For a secondary radar system, however, two conditions must be satisfied : St > st and Sr > sr where st and sr are the minimum signals which can be detected by the transponder and responsor respectively.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:responsor.
2. A person who is assigned responsibility for daily care of a person with a chronic illness and for working with the health care professionals.
   • 1978, Anthony R. Kovner, Samuel P. Martin, Community health and medical care, →ISBN, page 158:

     In one sense the role is not new. The lay family member who attends the sick relative is part of a more ancient tradition than the physician or nurse. What is new in the concept of the responsor is contributed by the increasing complexity of modern therapy for chronic illness and the slow development of organized home care as a formal system for the application of such therapy in private homes.

   • 1982, Nancy Burns, Nursing and Cancer, →ISBN, page 12:

     Often persons in the responsor role are limited in performing this role because of their own ailments.

   • 1986, Christine Lisa Mudge, The Social Support of Spouses of Patients on Hemodialysis, page 15:

     Results indicated that the responsors were affected by the illness process.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:responsor.

• “responsor, n.”, in Collins English Dictionary, accessed 24 March 2026.
• “responsor, n.¹”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
• “responsor, n.²”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
• “responsor”, in TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2026, retrieved 24 March 2026
• “responsor, n.”, in Merriam-Webster.com Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “responsor, n.”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present, retrieved 24 March 2026, reproduced from Stuart Berg Flexner, editor in chief, Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: Random House, 1993, →ISBN.

• sponsorer

responsor

1. future infinitive of responsar

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [rɛsˈpõː.sɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [resˈpɔn.sor]
• Hyphenation: res‧pōn‧sor

From respondeō + -tor.

respōnsor m (genitive respōnsōris); third declension

1. one that answers or replies
   • c. 211 BCE, Plautus, Rudens 1.4.7:

     neque quem rogitem respōnsōrem quemquam intereā conveniō,

     and meanwhile I don't meet anyone to ask for an answer,

Third-declension noun.

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

respōnsor

1. first-person singular present passive indicative of respōnsō

• “rēsponsor”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• respōnsor in Georges, Karl Ernst; Georges, Heinrich (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th edition, volume 2, Hahnsche Buchhandlung, column 2353
• R. E. Latham, D. R. Howlett, & R. K. Ashdowne, editors (1975–2013), “responsor”, in Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources‎^[1], London: Oxford University Press for the British Academy, →ISBN, →OCLC
• “responsor”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 1353.
• Harm Pinkster, editor (2018), “respōnsor”, in Woordenboek Latijn/Nederlands‎^[2], 7th revised edition, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, →ISBN, →OCLC
• Latino-Sinicum [translated as: 訟師／讼师 (sòngshī); 保人 (bǎorén)]
• "RESPONSOR", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)