Protester or Protestor

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Does anyone know which spelling is correct: ‘protester’ or ‘protestor’? I have two different English dictionaries, and one says protester and one says protestor. They are both British English but give the different spelling. I have also checked an American dictionary, which says that it is protester. Both of my British English dictionaries are from the same year; does anyone know which spelling is correct?

2

Hi Technology,

I should stick with ‘protester.’ The ‘or’ ending is a new one on me. ‘Er’ follows the same pattern as speaker/worker/listener where the noun is formed from the verb.

Alan

3

Shwa?[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC short conversations: Contract revisions[YSaerTTEW443543]

4

Hi Torsten,

Absolutely.

Alan

5

spelling.hemscott.net/ends4.html

WORDS ENDING WITH: ‘ER’ ‘OR’ ‘AR’

There are lots of words in English which end with the
-er sound. But when you listen to these words you can’t
be sure whether the sound is made by -er, -or or -ar.

Sorry, there’s no easy rule but there are a few helpful word patterns:

  1. I should point out that there are more than ten times as many
    words ending with -er than -or and -ar together. So, if you guess -er then
    there’s a good chance that you’ll be right!

  2. Verbs ending in a silent e usually change to nouns by ending -er:

dive/diver wade/wader write/writer avenge/avenger

  1. -er is also the most common way of ending a word for someone carrying out an action:

Action Person carrying out the action:

reporting/reporter
playing/player
fighting/fighter
listening/listener
printing/printer
cleaning/cleaner

  1. -or is used when the base word ends in -ate, -ct, -it :
    calculate/calculator create/creator investigate/investigator
    contract/contractor reflect/reflector conduct/conductor
    visit/visitor exhibit/exhibitor edit/editor

  2. There is no especially useful pattern to recognise words that
    end in -ar except to say that many of them finish with -lar:

regular popular similar pillar

But other than that it’s just a matter of memorizing the -ar words
as you come across them. Mispronouncing the ending so that it
rhymes with the -ar- in market is a handy memory trick.

6

Either is correct. Both er and or, as a suffix, mean one who [transitive verb]s
An actor acts.
A calculator calculates.
A prospector prospects.
Investors invest.
Protestors protest.
Protesters protest.
Senders send.
A messenger messages.
A killer kills.
A digger digs.

The spellings reflect a preference in dialect as both are correct words.

7

I agree. Both variants are common enough.

8

‘protester’ can be written as ‘protestor’.
Am I right?

9

Yes.