Other forms: sponsored, sponsors, sponsoring
To sponsor is to pay to support an event or a person, usually in return for publicity. Sponsor the tournament, sponsored by a bank, sponsor a runner.
In charity fundraising, sponsoring somebody means promising money if they complete a challenge — a sponsored walk, sponsor me. In broadcasting and sport, a sponsor buys the association with an event and its name on the shirt. As a noun, a sponsor is also the person who proposes something formally, and in recovery groups a sponsor is a more experienced member who supports a newer one.
1verbsponsorTo pay to support an event or person.
“The tournament has been sponsored by the same bank since 1994.”
synonyms: fund, back, underwrite
2nouncompanyA person or company that provides such support.
“The festival lost its main sponsor and had to cancel several concerts.”
sponsor is a supporter.
Also accepted in games: fund, back
Latin sponsor means a guarantor, from spondere, to promise solemnly — the same verb behind spouse and respond. A sponsor was originally somebody who stood surety for another person's promise.
Latin
sponsor
English, today
sponsor
From Latin sponsor. Latin spōnsor (“a surety", in Late Latin "a sponsor in baptism”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA