affiant

plural affiants

1. CanadaUSlawAn individual witness whose statement is contained in an affidavit; (generally) an individual who makes a sworn deposition; a deponent.

   I am bringing this information forward now because if we were involved unknowingly in something that was wrong, I want it to be righted. Further affiant sayeth naught.

   1986 October 1 (date when affidavit sworn), Joseph McDonnell, “Impeachment of Judge Harry E[ugene] Claiborne”, in Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 99th Congress, Second Session (United States Senate), volume 132, part 19, Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, published 2 October 1986, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 27781, column 3

   2 more examples

   This affiant looked at the wound after Mr. M‘Credie was dead, and from its appearance, which was very large, was of opinion that it was occasioned by a ball and two or three buck short. And farther this affiant saith not.

   1807 February 6, Lawson Flack, affiant, “Report of the committee appointed to examine into the cause of Mr. M‘Credie’s death”, in Virginia Argus, number 1350, Richmond, Va.: […] Samuel Pleasants, Junior, […], published 1 May 1807, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1, column 3

   In these cases, it is not hard to imagine that outside of a supportive community of apostates who asserted the Shakers duped them into joining, the public thought the affiants strange for ever dallying with the suspect sect in the first place.

   2002 June, Elizabeth A. De Wolfe, “A Spectacle for Remark”, in Shaking the Faith: Women, Family, and Mary Marshall Dyer’s Anti-Shaker Campaign, 1815–1867, New York, N.Y.; Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN, page 123