One who is proprietor of stock in the public funds, or in the funds of a bank or other company.--Webster. This is not in the English dictionaries. In England when speaking of the same, they say shareholders, members, or proprietors, generally the former. Mr. Pickering, however, cites the Edinburgh Review for the use of the word:
The stockholders who allow inferior capitalists to derive a profit from commission, will diminish that allowance.--Vol. III. p. 475.