operator
English edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from Latin operatōr, from operor (“work, labour”). Equivalent to operate + -or.
Pronunciation edit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈɒpəˌɹeɪtə/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈɑpəˌɹeɪtɚ/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - Hyphenation: op‧er‧ator
Noun edit
operator (countable and uncountable, plural operators)
- One who operates.
- 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
- The stories did not seem to me to touch life. […] They left me with the impression of a well-delivered stereopticon lecture, with characters about as life-like as the shadows on the screen, and whisking on and off, at the mercy of the operator.
- A telecommunications facilitator whose job is to establish temporary network connections.
- A member of a military special operations unit.
- (uncountable) The game of Chinese whispers.
- (informal) A person who is adept at making deals or getting results, especially one who uses questionable methods.
- 1990, House of Cards, season 1, episode 1:
- Francis Urquhart: I think Lord Billsborough is starting to lose touch a bit.
Tim Stamper: Shame. Used to be a hell of an operator in his day.
- (mathematics) A function or other mapping that carries variables defined on a domain into another variable or set of variables in a defined range.
- (computing) The administrator of a channel or network on IRC.
- (computing) A symbol that represents a construct in a programming language and differs from a normal function in its syntax.
- (linguistics) A kind of expression that enters into an a-bar movement dependency and is said to bind a variable.
- In the sentence "What did Bill say he wants to buy?", "what" is an operator, binding a phonetically empty variable.
- (transport) A bus driver.
- (slang) A thief or charlatan.
- 1709 January 11, Colley Cibber, “The Rival Fools: […]”, in Mr. Cibber's Plays, volume II, London: […] B. Lintot […], published 1721, page 104:
- Sir Ol. Sirrah! I got many a round Sum by it, when my Father wou'd not give me a Groat—Then, Sir, I was in with all the Top Gameſters, and when there was a fat Squire to be fleec'd; I had my Office among them too, and tho' I ſay it, was one of the neateſt Operators about Town.
- (slang) A major criminal.
- 1998, Irvine Welsh, Filth, New York, N.Y., London: W. W. Norton & Company, →ISBN, page 140:
- 2000 May 14, John Sweeney, “Cocky”, in The Observer[1], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-04-06:
- The second thing is that smart operators like Cocky are only in it for the (huge amounts of) money.
- (slang, dated) Someone who is successful at pursuing women; a player.
- 1974, Earl Wilson, Show Business Laid Bare, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam's Sons, →ISBN, page 188:
- I give credit to men who are great operators, as we once called them, with the girls. Once I was interviewing one of the most beautiful girls in the world in her suite at the Hotel Plaza. While she was busily denying to me that there was anything serious in her relationship with Warren Beatty, who should be barging into the next room of the suite with a lot of clothes being removed from another suite, but Warren Beatty?
- 1988 [1977], Luciano De Crescenzo, translated by Avril Bardoni, Thus Spake Bellavista: Naples, Love, and Liberty, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, →ISBN, page 101:
- "Of course you're right, but the Baron is unfortunately a bit of an operator, if you know what I mean. He likes the ladies," said Salvatore with a wicked grin. "So he never gets in until two, sometimes even three in the morning, and that's because he goes dancing at the Mela; he's quite a playboy."
- 1996, George P. Pelecanos, The Big Blowdown, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin's Press, →ISBN, page 298:
- Anyway, there's gonna be plenty of girls. Plenty of girls for an operator like you.
Hyponyms edit
- all-operator
- arithmetic operator
- assignment operator
- bastard operator from hell
- binary operator
- bitwise operator
- box operator
- comparison operator
- conditional operator
- co-operator
- crane operator
- d'Alembert operator
- differential operator
- Dunkl operator
- elliptic operator
- Elvis operator
- Elvis operator
- excavator operator
- flip-flop operator
- forklift operator
- Hamiltonian operator
- hypoelliptic operator
- infix operator
- integral operator
- Kleene operator
- ladder operator
- Laplace-Beltrami operator
- Laplace-de Rham operator
- Laplace operator
- length operator
- lifted operator
- linear operator
- logic operator
- machine operator
- marconi operator
- mobile virtual network operator
- NOT operator
- owner-operator
- pseudodifferential operator
- quabla operator
- radio operator
- relational operator
- rest operator
- Reynolds operator
- safe navigation operator
- shape operator
- short-circuit operator
- short circuit operator
- skyline operator
- smooth operator
- Sobel-Feldman operator
- Sobel operator
- spread operator
- suede-shoe operator
- system operator
- telegraph operator
- telephone operator
- ternary operator
- 't Hooft operator
- token-pasting operator
- tour operator
- unary operator
- walrus operator
- walrus operator
- wave operator
- wireless operator
Derived terms edit
Related terms edit
Translations edit
one who operates
|
telecommunications operator
|
mathematical operator
|
Chinese whispers — see Chinese whispers
the administrator of a channel or network on IRC
|
References edit
- Jonathon Green (2024) “operator n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang
Further reading edit
Anagrams edit
Latin edit
Etymology edit
Pronunciation edit
- (Classical) IPA(key): /o.peˈraː.tor/, [ɔpɛˈräːt̪ɔr]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /o.peˈra.tor/, [opeˈräːt̪or]
Noun edit
operātor m (genitive operātōris); third declension
Declension edit
Third-declension noun.
Case | Singular | Plural |
---|---|---|
Nominative | operātor | operātōrēs |
Genitive | operātōris | operātōrum |
Dative | operātōrī | operātōribus |
Accusative | operātōrem | operātōrēs |
Ablative | operātōre | operātōribus |
Vocative | operātor | operātōrēs |
Descendants edit
Verb edit
operātor
References edit
- “operator”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- operator in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
- operator in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.F
Northern Kurdish edit
Etymology edit
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
operator ?
Polish edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from French opérateur, from Latin operātor.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
operator m pers (female equivalent operatorka)
- machinist, operator
- (medicine) surgeon
- Synonym: chirurg
- (cinematography) cameraman, cinematographer
- (telecommunications) operator (company providing operator services)
Declension edit
Declension of operator
singular | plural | |
---|---|---|
nominative | operator | operatorzy/operatory (deprecative) |
genitive | operatora | operatorów |
dative | operatorowi | operatorom |
accusative | operatora | operatorów |
instrumental | operatorem | operatorami |
locative | operatorze | operatorach |
vocative | operatorze | operatorzy |
Noun edit
operator m inan
Declension edit
Declension of operator
singular | plural | |
---|---|---|
nominative | operator | operatory |
genitive | operatoru | operatorów |
dative | operatorowi | operatorom |
accusative | operator | operatory |
instrumental | operatorem | operatorami |
locative | operatorze | operatorach |
vocative | operatorze | operatory |
Derived terms edit
adjectives
noun
Further reading edit
Romanian edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from French opérateur or Latin operator. Equivalent to opera + -tor.
Adjective edit
operator m or n (feminine singular operatoare, masculine plural operatori, feminine and neuter plural operatoare)
Declension edit
Declension of operator
singular | plural | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
masculine | neuter | feminine | masculine | neuter | feminine | ||
nominative/ accusative |
indefinite | operator | operatoare | operatori | operatoare | ||
definite | operatorul | operatoarea | operatorii | operatoarele | |||
genitive/ dative |
indefinite | operator | operatoare | operatori | operatoare | ||
definite | operatorului | operatoarei | operatorilor | operatoarelor |
Noun edit
operator m (plural operatori)
Declension edit
Declension of operator
singular | plural | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
indefinite articulation | definite articulation | indefinite articulation | definite articulation | |
nominative/accusative | (un) operator | operatorul | (niște) operatori | operatorii |
genitive/dative | (unui) operator | operatorului | (unor) operatori | operatorilor |
vocative | operatorule | operatorilor |
Serbo-Croatian edit
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
opèrātor m (Cyrillic spelling опѐра̄тор)
Declension edit
Declension of operator
singular | plural | |
---|---|---|
nominative | operator | operatori |
genitive | operatora | operatora |
dative | operatoru | operatorima |
accusative | operator | operatore |
vocative | operatore | operatori |
locative | operatoru | operatorima |
instrumental | operatorom | operatorima |
Swedish edit
Noun edit
operator c
- (mathematics, computing) an operator
Declension edit
Declension of operator | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | Plural | |||
Indefinite | Definite | Indefinite | Definite | |
Nominative | operator | operatorn | operatorer | operatorerna |
Genitive | operators | operatorns | operatorers | operatorernas |