petitioner
UK[pəˈtɪʃ.ən.ər]US[pəˈtɪʃ.ən.ɚ]
n
a person who makes a formal, written request to an authority, especially a court or government, for a legal or official action.
n
a person who presents a petition, especially one signed by many people, to an authority in order to request a change.
Morpheme Breakdown
petit
ion
er
petit
seek
ion
noun suffix
er
agent suffix
Etymology
the word 'petitioner' has a clear lineage tracing back to the latin verb 'petere', which meant to seek, aim for, or request. this core concept of making a request was carried into old french as 'petition', which english later adopted. the addition of the noun-forming suffix '-ion' created 'petition', the formal act of requesting. finally, the agent suffix '-er' was appended, a common germanic construction, to specify the person who performs the act of petitioning. thus, the modern 'petitioner' logically denotes one who formally seeks or requests action from an authority.
Analysis
Structure: petit (seek) + ion (noun suffix) + er (agent suffix)
petit (from old french 'petition', from latin 'petitio(n-)', from 'petere' meaning to seek, aim at, request); ion (a suffix forming nouns denoting action or condition, from latin '-ionem'); er (a suffix forming agent nouns indicating a person who performs an action, from old english '-ere', of germanic origin).
Examples
the petitioner filed a motion with the court to appeal the decision.
as the lead petitioner, she collected over ten thousand signatures for the environmental campaign.
the judge heard arguments from both the petitioner and the respondent.