Other forms: spectators
A spectator is a person watching the game from the stands. Spectator sport, four thousand spectators, spectator safety.
Spectator safety at stadiums is governed by a code that came out of the Hillsborough and Bradford disasters, and all-seater grounds in the top English divisions date from that. A spectator sport is one worth watching, and saying something is not a spectator sport is a joke about it being dull. Note spectate, which was made backwards from spectator.
1nounspectatorA person watching a game or event.
“Thousands of spectators lined the streets to watch the marathon.”
spectator is a watcher.
Latin spectator comes from spectare, to watch, from specere, to look. Spectacle, inspect and respect come from the same looking.
Latin
spectātor
English, today
spectator
Built from
Borrowed from Latin spectātor, from frequentative verb spectō (“watch”), from speciō (“look at”). Equivalent to spectate + or. a doublet of speculator.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA