tortfeasor
A person who commits a tort.
[…] there is an exception “in the cases of heir and executor, who may plead a release to the ancestor or testator whom they respectively represent; so also with respect to several tortfeasors, for in all these cases there is a privity between the parties which constitutes an identity of person”.
Where it comes from
From Anglo-Norman tortfeasor, from Old French tortfesor, tort-faiseur, torfesor, torzfesor (“wrongdoer”), from tort (“a misdeed, a wrong”) + fesor, faiseur (“doer”).
Adapted from the Wiktionary entry tortfeasor (CC BY-SA 4.0).