§ 43.001.Definition

A definition drawn by function rather than by label.

"Surety" includes an endorser, a guarantor, and a drawer of a draft that has been accepted, and every other form of suretyship, whether created by express contract or by operation of law.

The three named parties occupy the same economic position. Each is liable on an obligation that belongs at bottom to somebody else, and each expects the principal to pay.

Naming them removes an argument about terminology. A guarantor might say they are not a surety, since the two have technical differences at common law — this chapter treats them alike.

"Every other form of suretyship" is the operative phrase, and it makes the definition open. Any arrangement in which one person answers for another’s obligation is within the chapter.

"Whether created by express contract or by operation of law" widens it again. Suretyship can arise without anyone agreeing to it — where one of several obligors has, as between them, primary responsibility.

The breadth matters because of what the chapter gives a surety. The right to force the creditor to sue, priority of execution against the principal’s property, and subrogation to the judgment on paying it.

Those protections rest on one idea: a surety who pays should be able to recover from the person who owes the debt, and should not be pursued first.

The word is "includes", not "means", so the list is illustrative and the definition is not confined to it.