Noah Webster
Deponent
DEPONENT, adjective
1. Laying down.
2. A deponent verb, in the Latin Grammar, is a verb which has a passive termination, with an active signification, and wants one of the passive participles; as, loquor, to speak.
DEPONENT, .
1. One who deposes, or gives a deposition under oath; one who gives written testimony to be used as evidence in a court of justice. With us in New England, this word is never used, I believe, for a witness who gives oral testimony in court. In England, a deponent is one who gives answers under oath to interrogatories exhibited in chancery.
2. A deponent verb.