1. A person who tries to prove that something or someone is false, untruthful, or has invalid conceptions: The economics professor, Dr. Smart, was a confuter of some promotors who guaranteed great wealth if certain investments were made for the long term.
2. Etymology: from Middle French confuter; from Latin confutare, "to repress, to check; to disprove, to restrain, to silence"; from com-, "with, together" + futare, "to beat, to hit".