[a. L. sponsor, agent-noun f. spondēre: cf. SPONSION.]
1. Eccl. One who answers for an infant at baptism; a godfather or godmother.
1651. Baxter, Inf. Bapt., 153. How could the Sponsors be indangered while there were Parents?
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 6 Oct. 1687. I was godfather to Sir John Chardin’s sonn…. The Earle of Bath and Countesse of Carlisle, the other Sponsors.
1737. Gentl. Mag., VII. 21/1. It is well known, that the Business of Sponsors at Baptism is in general brought to a very scandalous Pass.
1807. Crabbe, Par. Reg., III. 959. Here, with an infant, joyful sponsors come.
1850. R. I. Wilberforce, Holy Baptism, 103. The practice of requiring sponsors at Baptism is of ancient date.
1907. Verney Mem., II. 237. When her daughter was born nothing would satisfy Lady Abdy but that Sir Ralph should stand sponsor.
fig. 1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xxxiii. His Lordship … was a credit to his political sponsor.
2. One who enters into an engagement, makes a formal promise or pledge, on behalf of another; a surety.
1677. Miége, Fr. Dict., II. Sponsor, or surety that undertaketh for another.
1681. J. Scott, Chr. Life, I. iv. (1684), 207. Our Mediator is called the Sponsor, or Surety of a better Covenant.
1741. C. Middleton, Cicero, VIII. II. 197. Magius, oppressed with debts,… had been urging Marcellus, who was his sponsor for some part of them, to furnish him with money to pay the whole.
1800. Asiat. Ann. Reg., V. 58/1. Sponsors also are of two kinds, one for appearance, the other for payment.
1864. D. G. Mitchell, Sev. Stor., 107. I found it requisite … to become sponsor for his good conduct.
1880. Muirhead, Gaius, III. § 118. The positions of sponsor and fidepromissor are much the same. Ibid., Dig. 535. All … who failed … to relieve sponsors (sureties) who had paid for them.
b. One who stood surety for the appearance and good faith of either party in a trial by combat.
1825. Scott, Talism., xxviii. The sponsors of both champions went, as was their duty, to see that they were duly armed, and prepared for combat. Ibid. The sponsors, heralds, and squires now retired to the barriers.
3. transf. Of things (after sense 1 or 2).
1846. Landor, Hellenics, Wks. II. 486. We are what suns and winds and waters make us; The mountains are our sponsors.
1870. Emerson, Soc. & Solit., Wks. (Bohn), III. 134. All the good days behind him are sponsors, who speak for him.
1889. Gretton, Memory’s Harkback, 233. In Essex, especially, the aguish climate stood sponsor for the absence of clerics as a rule.
