lector

English

Alternative forms

• lectour (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English lector, lectoure, lectour, from Late Latin lēctor, from legō (“to read”). “Voice-over” sense probably adapted from Polish lektor. Doublet of lecture and lecturer.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɛktə(ɹ)/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

lector (plural lectors)

1. (religion) A lay person who reads aloud certain religious texts in a church service.
2. (education) A public lecturer or reader at some universities.
3. (historical, US, cigar industry) A person who reads aloud to workers to entertain them, appointed by a trade union.
   • 2004 October 27, D. J. R. Bruckner, “New Inflections and Nuance in a Florida Cigar Factory”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Its lyrical, poetic flights seem much more at home in the romantic musings of two sisters competing for the attention of the new, handsome lector, a man hired to read stories to workers in a Florida cigar factory, who might otherwise be mesmerized by the repetitive boredom of their jobs.

4. (television, film) A person doing voice-over translation of foreign films, especially in Eastern European countries.
   • 2011, David Bellos, chapter 12, in Is that a Fish in Your Ear?:

     The Hungarian viewer of The Colbert Report wants to experience authentic American comedy, and the lector—like an interpreter performing chuchotage at a high-level meeting of heads of state—serves primarily as a check on the viewer's grasp of the real thing.

Derived terms

• archlector
• caveat lector
• lectorship
• lectress

Related terms

• lectern
• lection
• lectionary
• lecture

Translations

lay person who reads aloud certain religious texts

• Bulgarian: четец (bg) m (četec)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 咏者 (yóng zhě), 咏者 (yóng zhě)

• Indonesian: lektor (id)
• Italian: lettore (it) m, lettrice f
• Portuguese: leitor (pt) m, leitora (pt) f
• Vietnamese: người đọc kinh, thầy đọc kinh, thầy đọc sách, thừa tác viên Lời Chúa (Roman Catholicism)

public lecturer or reader

• Bulgarian: лектор (bg) m (lektor)

Verb

lector (third-person singular simple present lectors, present participle lectoring, simple past and past participle lectored)

1. To perform service as a lector in a religious context.
2. To do a voice-over translation of a film.
   • 2011, David Bellos, chapter 12, in Is that a Fish in Your Ear?:

     How much of Colbert's political satire can be truly grasped by a Hungarian viewer of a lectored episode is slightly beside the point: something gets through.

Further reading

• lector on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Colter, Cotler, ECRLOT, colter

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin lēctōrem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ləkˈto]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [lekˈtoɾ]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

Adjective

lector (feminine lectora, masculine plural lectors, feminine plural lectores)

1. reading

Noun

lector m (plural lectors, feminine lectora, feminine plural lectores)

1. reader

Related terms

• lectura
• llegir
• lliçó

Further reading

• “lector”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007

Latin

Etymology

From legō +‎ -tor.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈɫeːk.tɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈlɛk.tor]

Noun

lēctor m (genitive lēctōris, feminine lēctrīx); third declension

1. reader

Declension

Third-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	lēctor	lēctōrēs
genitive	lēctōris	lēctōrum
dative	lēctōrī	lēctōribus
accusative	lēctōrem	lēctōrēs
ablative	lēctōre	lēctōribus
vocative	lēctor	lēctōrēs

Derived terms

• lēctorīle

Related terms

• lēctiō
• lēctitō
• lēctiuncula
• lēctrīx
• lēctūra
• lēctus

Descendants

• Italo-Romance:
  • Italian: lettore
• Gallo-Romance:
  • Old Franco-Provençal: leytour
    • Franco-Provençal: le̢ytur
  • Old French: litur, litre, letour
    • Middle French: listre (silent s), leiteur
  • Old Occitan: leitre, leytoo
• Ibero-Romance:
  • → Portuguese: leitor
• Early borrowings:
  • → Old Irish: líachtóir
    • Irish: léachtóir
• Modern borrowings:
  • → Bulgarian: ле́ктор (léktor)
  • → Catalan: lector
  • → English: lector
  • → French: lecteur
  • → German: Lektor
  • → Macedonian: лектор (lektor)
  • → Polish: lektor
  • → Romanian: lector
  • → Russian: ле́ктор (léktor)
    • → Crimean Tatar: lektor
  • → Spanish: lector
  • → Swedish: lektor

References

• “lector”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “lector”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "lector", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “lector”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002), “lĕctor”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), volume 5: J L, page 235

Portuguese

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin lēctōrem, re-Latinized from leitor.

Noun

lector m (plural lectores, feminine lectora, feminine plural lectoras)

1. (Early Modern) obsolete form of leitor
   • 1569, Gaspar da Cruz, “Auiſo aos lectoꝛes [Advice to readers]”, in Tractado em que ſe cõtam muito poꝛ eſtẽſo as couſas da China […] [Treaty in which the matters of China are told very extensively  […]], 1st edition, Andre de Burgos, unnumbered page:

     Ho lectoꝛ nam eſperara de mi abundãcia de eloquẽcia, ⁊ oꝛnamento em cõpoſiçã de palauras, ſomẽte ſe cõtẽte cõ eu ſer fiel ⁊ v̇dadeiro na ſingella narraçam […]

     The reader shall not expect from me an abundance of eloquence and ornament in my composition of words; he shall be content with my being faithful and honest in my simple account […]

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French lecteur.

Noun

lector m (plural lectori)

1. lecturer

Declension

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	lector	lectorul	lectori	lectorii
genitive-dative	lector	lectorului	lectori	lectorilor
vocative	lectorule		lectorilor

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin lēctōrem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /leɡˈtoɾ/ [leɣ̞ˈt̪oɾ]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -oɾ
• Syllabification: lec‧tor

Adjective

lector (feminine lectora, masculine plural lectores, feminine plural lectoras)

1. reading
2. reading aloud to other people

Noun

lector m (plural lectores, feminine lectora, feminine plural lectoras)

1. reader (a person who reads)
2. reader (a person who reads a publication)

Noun

lector m (plural lectores)

1. (computing) reader

Derived terms

• lector de discos
• lector de pantalla
• lectoría

Related terms

• lección
• lectura
• leer

Further reading

• “lector”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025