Origin: bef. 900; ME
folwer, OE
folgere. See follow, -er 1 
Synonyms:
2. supporter. Follower, adherent, partisan refer to someone who demonstrates allegiance to a person, a doctrine, a cause, and the like. Follower often has an implication of personal relationship or of slavish acquiescence. Adherent, a more formal word, has implications of active championship of a person or a point of view. Partisan, ordinarily meaning a person prejudiced and unreasoning in adherence to a party, during World War II took on the meaning of a member of certain groups in occupied countries of Europe who carried on underground resistance to the Nazis.
Antonyms:
2. opponent, adversary, enemy, foe.
[fol-oh-er] 
