comparator

English

Use of a comparator to measure screw threads.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kəmˈpa.ɹə.tə(ɹ)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /kəmˈpæ.ɹə.təɹ/, /kəmˈpɛ.ɹə.təɹ/

Noun

comparator (plural comparators)

1. Any of various devices for comparing a physical property of two objects, or an object with a standard.

   optical comparator

2. An electronic device that compares two voltages, currents or streams of data.

   electrical comparator;   digital comparator

3. (law) Anything that serves as a comparison.
4. (medicine) A thing being compared against in the PICO process; often, a diagnostic method or a treatment being compared against another.
   • 2014 May 20, European Court of Human Rights, McDonald v. The United Kingdom‎^[1], number 4241/12, marginal 48:

     The applicant is therefore complaining not of a lack of action but rather of the decision of the local authority to reduce the care package that it had hitherto been making available to her. As such, a more appropriate comparator would be the case of Watts v. The United Kingdom (dec.), no. 53586/09 of 4 May 2010, in which the Court was content to proceed on the basis that a decision to close the care home where the elderly applicant was resident and to transfer her to another home constituted an interference with her rights under Article 8.

   • 2017 November 9, United States District Court for the District of Connecticut, Roxanne Khazarian vs. Gerald Metals, LLC, Metals Trading Corp., Gerald Holdings, LLC, Craig Dean, and Dan Gamez‎^[2], numbers 3:16-cv-01762(VAB):

     Roxanne Khazarian (“Plaintiff”) moved to compel discovery from Gerald Metals, LLC and Metals Trading Corp (“Defendants”), seeking the personnel file of Gary Lerner, an employee of Defendants. […] Defendants object to the production of these documents on the grounds that Mr. Lerner is not an appropriate comparator for Ms. Khazarian and his personnel file is therefore irrelevant.

5. (computing) An application or program that compares prices, rates, tariffs of flights, smartphones, cars, etc.

Derived terms

• stereocomparator

Translations

device for comparing a physical property of two objects

• French: comparateur (fr) m
• Galician: comparador m
• German: Komparator (de) m
• Portuguese: comparador m
• Slovak: komparátor
• Spanish: comparador (es) m
• Swedish: komparator
• Welsh: cymharydd m

electronic device that compares two voltages, currents or streams of data

• Spanish: comparador (es) m

computing: application that compares prices

• French: comparateur (fr) m
• Galician: comparador m
• Portuguese: comparador m
• Spanish: comparador (es) m

See also

• dial indicator
• indicator

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [kɔm.paˈraː.tɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [kom.paˈraː.tor]

Etymology 1

Verb forms.

Verb

comparātor

1. second/third-person singular future passive imperative of comparō

Etymology 2

Etymology tree

Latin comparō

Proto-Indo-European *-tōr

Proto-Italic *-tōr

Latin -tor

Latin comparātor

From comparō + -tor.

Noun

comparātor m (genitive comparātōris); third declension

1. a comparer
2. (Late Latin) a purchaser, buyer

Declension

Third-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	comparātor	comparātōrēs
genitive	comparātōris	comparātōrum
dative	comparātōrī	comparātōribus
accusative	comparātōrem	comparātōrēs
ablative	comparātōre	comparātōribus
vocative	comparātor	comparātōrēs

Descendants

• Catalan: comprador
• Italian: compratore
• Occitan: crompador
• Portuguese: comprador
• Romanian: comparator, cumpărător
• Spanish: comprador

References

• “comparator”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “comparator”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French comparateur. By surface analysis, compara +‎ -tor.

Noun

comparator n (plural comparatoare)

1. comparator

Declension

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	comparator	comparatorul	comparatoare	comparatoarele
genitive-dative	comparator	comparatorului	comparatoare	comparatoarelor
vocative	comparatorule		comparatoarelor