Also 6 -our, 7–8 -er. [a. AF. contributour (mod.F. -eur) = L. type *contribūtōr-em, agent-n. f. contribūt-: see CONTRIBUTE and -OR.]
One who contributes or gives to a common fund; one who bears a part in effecting a result.
1530–1. Act 22 Hen. VIII., c. 15. They … shall not be contributours nor charged to the payement of the sayed somme.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., I. ii. 215. I promist we would be Contributors, And beare his charge of wooing whatsoere.
1667. Decay Chr. Piety, xvi. ¶ 1. A fourth grand contributer to our dissentions is passion.
1676. W. Hubbard, Happiness of People, 2. By which our Saviour preferred the bounty of the poor Widow above all the rest of the Contributers.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., V. ii. (1869), II. 416. Every tax ought to be levied … in the manner in which it is most likely to be convenient for the contributor to pay it.
Mod. Among the contributors to the testimonial are, etc.
† b. One who pays tribute. Obs.
1550. Nicolls, Thucyd., 155 (R.). Certayn barbarous or estrangers be contrybutours unto the Syracusians.
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, III. xii. 91. The people being contributers vsed him kindly. Ibid. (1630), Trav. & Adv., 35. Himselfe as rich … as any Prince in Christendome, and yet a Contributor to the Turke.
c. One who contributes literary articles to a journal, magazine, or other joint literary work.
1750. Johnson, Rambler, No. 56, ¶ 16. Let therefore the next friendly contributor … observe the cautions of Swift, and write secretly in his own chamber.
1843. Macaulay, Ess., Pref. The author has sometimes, like other contributors to periodical works, been under the necessity of writing at a distance from all books.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, The ‘Times,’ Wks. (Bohn), II. 119. It draws from any number of learned and skilful contributors.
