auditor
(ˈɔːdɪtə(r))
Forms: 4–6 audytour(e, 4–7 -itour, 5 -ytor, awdyter, 5– auditor.
[a. AF. auditour = F. auditeur (substituted for OF. oeor), ad. L. audītor, f. audīre to hear: see -or.]
1. A hearer, listener; one of an audience.
| c 1386 Chaucer Sompn. T. 229 Workers of Goddes word, not auditours. 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. iii. i. 81 What, a Play toward? Ile be an auditor. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. Democr. 58 No parish to contain above a thousand auditors. 1752 Johnson Rambl. 195 ¶1 He that long delays a story, and suffers his auditor to torment himself with expectation. 1863 M. Howitt tr. F. Bremer's Greece I. viii. 264 The galleries were..filled with auditors. |
2. a. One who learns by oral instruction; an attendant on lectures, a disciple; in
Eccl. Hist. a catechumen;
cf. audient n.| 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 425/1 He made al the audytours of the cristen feyth to be put to deth. 1589 Pasquil's Ret. B iiij, As the Auditors of the Philosophers did in times past. 1691 Wood Ath. Oxon. I/326 Bodley..was an auditor of Chevalerius in Hebrew. 1851 Torrey Neander's Ch. Hist. I. 502 The great mass, consisting of the exoterics, were to constitute the Auditors. |
b. One who audits a course, etc.: see
audit v. 5.
N. Amer.| 1933 [see audit v. 5]. 1937 Bull. Univ. Kentucky June 14 Auditors. In lecture and recitation courses..$1.00 per credit hr. 1964 Bull. Univ. Kentucky Gen. Catal. 1964/5 28/2 All auditors are charged the same fee that they would pay for credit. 1987 Washington Post 8 Feb. e3/6 Several of the older passengers earned credits for their efforts, although most had attended as auditors. |
3. (From the fact that accounts were formerly vouched for orally) An official whose duty it is to receive and examine accounts of money in the hands of others, who verifies them by reference to vouchers, and has power to disallow improper charges.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xix. 458 Of my reue to take Al þat myne auditour, or elles my stuwarde Conseilleth me by her acounte. 1469 J. Paston in Lett. 631 II. 388 Send downe..to some awdyter, to take acomptys of Dawbneys byllys. 1557 Ord. Hospitalls B iv b, There shall also be chosen Auditors generall of the Accompts. 1607 Shakes. Timon ii. ii. 165 Call me before th' exactest Auditors, And set me on the proofe. 1832 Babbage Econ. Manuf. xxxi. 313 The public ought to have auditors on their part, and the accounts should be annually published. |
| fig. 1393 Gower Conf. II. 191 Upon thilke ende of our accompte, Which Crist him self is auditour. 1533 More Apol. i. Wks. 845/2 No such man wil ouer me be so sore an auditour..as to charge me with any great losse. |
4. a. One who listens in a judicial capacity and tries cases brought before him for hearing;
spec. the official presiding in the archbishop's Audience Court (see
audience 3).
| 1640 Bp. Reynolds Passions vi. 42 In matter of Action, and of Iudicature, Affection in some sort is an Auditor or Iudge. 1706 Lond. Gaz. No. 4230/1 Signior Caprara, one of the Auditors de Rota. 1726 Ayliffe Parerg. 192 The Auditor, or Official of Causes and Matters in the Court of Audience of Canterbury. |
b. (See
quot.)
| 1919 Moore-Anderson Sir Robert Anderson i. 4 Of his University life [at Trinity Coll., Dublin] he..cherished pleasant memories..associated with the College Historical Society, of which he became Auditor, a position corresponding to that of President of the Union at Oxford or Cambridge. |