testator

English

Alternative forms

• testatour (obsolete)

Etymology

From Latin testator (“one who makes a will, in Late Latin also one who bears witness”), from testari (“to bear witness, make a will”). See testament.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈtɛˌsteɪ.tɚ/, IPA^(key): /tɛsˈteɪ.tɚ/
• Rhymes: -eɪtə(ɹ)

Noun

testator (plural testators)

1. (law) One who makes or has made a legally valid will.

   Synonyms: devisor, (uncommon) legator, testamentor

   • 1881, Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Common Law‎:

     […] there is an exception “in the cases of heir and executor, who may plead a release to the ancestor or testator whom they respectively represent; so also with respect to several tortfeasors, for in all these cases there is a privity between the parties which constitutes an identity of person”.

   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     As it is, knowing that the testator was a gentleman of the highest intelligence and acumen, and that he has absolutely no relations living to whom he could have confided the guardianship of the child, we do not feel justified in taking this course.

Antonyms

• intestate (noun)

Related terms

• testament
• testatrix
• testify
• testimonial
• testimony

Translations

See also

• executor

Further reading

• “testator”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “testator”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• attestor

Latin

Etymology

testor (“I am witness, testify, attest; I make a will”) +‎ -ātor

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /tesˈtaː.tor/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /tesˈta.tor/,

Noun

testātor m (genitive testātōris, feminine testātrīx); third declension

1. testator
2. witness

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Descendants

Verb

testātor

1. second/third-person singular future active imperative of testor

References

• “testator”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• testator in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• testator in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Polish

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin testātor.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɛsˈta.tɔr/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -atɔr
• Syllabification: tes‧ta‧tor

Noun

testator m pers (female equivalent testatorka)

1. testator, legator, devisor

   Synonym: spadkodawca

Declension

Further reading

• testator in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French testateur, from Latin testator.

Noun

testator m (plural testatori)

1. testator

Declension