Other forms: holders
A holder is the person who holds something, or the thing that does. A card holder, a passport holder, a title holder.
The two senses run side by side without confusion because the context always settles it: a candle holder is an object and a licence holder is a person. In law, the holder of a document is the person entitled to act on it, which is why the word appears on so many official forms. Note hold, holding.
1nounholderThe person who holds something.
“Only ticket holders will be allowed into the stadium.”
2nounnoun2A thing that holds something.
“She put the pen back in its holder on the desk.”
holder is a person or thing that holds.
Proto-Indo-European
*kel-
Middle English
holden
English
hold
English, today
holder
From hold + -er. hold comes from Middle English holden. Middle English holden, Old English healdan, Proto-West Germanic haldan, Proto-Germanic haldaną (“to tend, herd”), maybe Proto-Indo-European kel- (“to drive”). a doublet of halt. 2
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA