Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993.
deviser, devisor, divisor (nn.)
When they occur in connected speech, these three are virtual homophones, but each has its own distinctive spelling and meaning: a deviser is “one who devises, composes, creates, or makes up something”; a devisor (a legal term) is “someone who in a will leaves property”; a divisor (in arithmetic) is “the term by which the dividend is divided, thus producing the quotient.” See also AGENTIVE ENDINGS.
