"Donator" to Donor

[hmwere]

Dear Admin and all concerned,

I request that we change the word from "Donator" to "Donor".

I thank all those who are endeavouring to make this needed contribution to the forum for it will keep the forum alive.

Thanks again and Regards
hmwere

[Administrator]

My English is not excellent.but "Donator" & "Donor" have approximately same meaning.:connie_nutzo:
can anyone explain more?
I`m waiting for other moderators & users opinion....

[Grunf]

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"Donator" is what we call a back-formation. It's certainly in use out there, and showing up in dictionaries too. But "donor" still seems to be the ascendent choice.

Less than 600,000 Google hits for "donator"

Over 72 million hits for "donor"

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Donator isn't a word, you are thinking of the word Donor, the root word Donate which is a verb which means to give a gift or money, to contribute: to contribute means transferring some of your stuff to somebody else who usually didn't have the stuff.

Donor:
1 : one that donates
2 : one used as a source of bodily material or parts <a blood donor> <a kidney donor>

Maybe the more suitable word will be: Supporter
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meaning:

To uphold by aid or countenance; to aid; to help; to back up; as, to support a friend or a party; to support the present administration.

[hmwere]

@ Admin and all concerned,
Nowadays, English has become so much adulterated. People have developed slang which has become so much accepted by all, and thereby also existing in some dictionaries.
Say people like politicians and geographers mainly, have developed words such as peoples, woods, hairs, waters ( referring to lakes, rivers,seas, etc). Although these words are being used by many depending on the context, they are not correct as per English use. Donator falls in the same category, and Grunf's research proves this basing on the google hits.

Just as Admin pointed out that the "donors" should not directly expect anything in return but rather do it at will, better words to use would be Philanthropist, benefactor ,Sponsor,....
but these may not be easily understood by all.

I think we should adhere to "Donor" for now as this is widely accepted.

Thanks.

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Supporter would be another good word to use, as mentioned out by Grunf but it is problematic in so many ways. It has got quite different meanings depending on the contextual use.

1) A structural engineer would use it but referring to something totally different. A lot of structural members support others, say columns supporting top floors and thus qualify as supporters.

2) A father supporting his family by availing all the daily bread, he is a supporter

3) Supporters (fans) of a football team, they may not necessarily inject any monies into the team( another slang word, not correct as per English use)

4) Supporting a person because of his good ideologies,say a president. We all may support our presidents but do we inject anything monetary?

Thanks