attender

From Middle English attender, attendere, equivalent to attend +‎ -er.

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• Rhymes: -ɛndə(ɹ)

attender (plural attenders)

1. An attendee; one who attends a course, meeting, school, etc.
   • 1850, William Ellis, Alice Ellis, James Backhouse, The Life and Correspondence of William and Alice Ellis, of Airton, H. Longstreth, page 305:

     She was a very constant attender of First-day and week-day meetings, at the meeting places she belonged to

   • 1900, James Wideman Lee, Naphtali Luccock, and James Main Dixon, The Illustrated History of Methodism, page 345, The Methodist Magazine Publishing Co.

     And she continued her infamous trade of procuress, while a zealous and regular attender of the Tabernacle at Tottenham-Court!

   • 1950, Harold Spears, The High School for Today, American Book Co., page 2:

     The great distance that some youth travel...is bound to play its part in the case of the borderline student who becomes an infrequent attender and finally drops out of school.

   • 2000, Linda Woodhead, Paul Heelas, Religion in Modern Times: An Anthology, Blackwell Publishing, page 401:

     If there is no spiritual distinction between member and attender, the question is asked, Why have membership at all?

2. An attendant; one who attends to someone or something.
   • 1969, University of Melbourne Library: Report, Melbourne: University Press, page 1:

     Sri C. Rajabather was appointed to assist in the office as typist attender from 7-4-41.

3. (metaphysics) The subject; one who experiences.
   • 1873, Sara S. Hennell, Present Religion: As a Faith Owning Fellowship with Thought, Trübner and Co., page 159:

     the whole process of ages’-long mentalization, of which our present ability of conceiving “Mind” forms only the culmination, and by no means the constant attender.

   • 1954, Wilmon Henry Sheldon, God and Polarity: A Synthesis of Philosophies, Yale University Press, page 48:

     Activity of attention for the sake of knowledge changes only the mind of the attender and is resisted only by the habits, biases, laziness and the like

   • 1996 July, Daniel A. Helminiak, The Human Core of Spirituality: Mind as Psyche and Spirit, State University of New York Press, page 53:

     The other aspect pertains to the subject’s own subjectivity, those qualities that constitute the subject as the experiencer or attender.

• Concise Oxford English Dictionary

• nattered, rattened, reattend, tartened

attender

1. to wait for