An investor who owns bonds issued by a corporation or government entity. Bondholders are creditors of the issuer and have legal claims to interest payments and principal repayment before equity holders.
Compound from 'bond' (from Old English band, meaning binding agreement) and 'holder' (from Old English healdan, meaning to possess). The concept emerged with the development of formal debt markets in medieval Italian city-states.
Bondholders are like the company's landlords - they get paid rent (interest) regularly and have first dibs on assets if the company goes bankrupt, while stockholders are more like business partners who only make money if the business succeeds!
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