operator

See also: Operator, operatör, operatőr, operatør, and operátor

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin operatōr, from operor (“work, labour”). Equivalent to operate +‎ -or.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɒpəˌɹeɪtə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɑpəˌɹeɪɾɚ/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: op‧er‧ator

Noun

operator (countable and uncountable, plural operators)

1. One who operates.
   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter 1, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., OCLC 222716698:

     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.

2. A telecommunications facilitator whose job is to establish temporary network connections.
3. (mathematics) A function or other mapping that carries variables defined on a domain into another variable or set of variables in a defined range.
4. (uncountable) The game of Chinese whispers.
5. (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.

6. A member of a military special operations unit.
7. (computing) The administrator of a channel or network on IRC.
8. (computing) A symbol that represents a construct in a programming language and differs from a normal function in its syntax.
9. (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.

Hyponyms

• arithmetic operator
• assignment operator
• binary operator
• bitwise operator
• comparison operator
• conditional operator
• differential operator
• infix operator
• integral operator
• lifted operator
• logic operator
• smooth operator
• ternary operator
• unary operator

 

Related terms

• opera
• operable
• operand
• operant
• operate
• operation
• operational
• operative
• opus

 

Translations

one who operates

• Belarusian: апера́тар m (apjerátar)
• Bulgarian: опера́тор (bg) m (operátor)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 操作者 (zh) (cāozuòzhě)

• Danish: operatør
• Dutch: bediener (nl) m
• Finnish: toimija (fi), operaattori (fi); käyttäjä (fi), koneenkäyttäjä (fi) (machine operator), kuljettaja (fi) (lit. driver); liikennöitsijä (fi) (transportation)
• French: opérateur (fr) m
• Galician: operador (gl) m
• German: Betreiber (de) m
• Greek: χειριστής (el) m (cheiristís)

• Hebrew: מפעיל‎ m (maf3íl)
• Hungarian: kezelő (hu), gépkezelő (hu), üzemeltető, üzembentartó
• Japanese: 操作者 (そうさしゃ, sōsasha), オペレーター (operētā)
• Korean: 조작자 (jojakja), 오퍼레이터 (opeoreiteo)
• Polish: operator (pl) m
• Portuguese: operador (pt) m
• Romanian: operator (ro) m
• Russian: опера́тор (ru) m (operátor)
• Serbo-Croatian: operater (sh) m, оператер m
• Spanish: operador (es) m
• Swedish: operatör (sv) c
• Turkish: operatör (tr)
• Ukrainian: опера́тор m (operátor)

telecommunications operator

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 話務員 (zh), 话务员 (zh) (huàwùyuán), 接線員 (zh), 接线员 (zh) (jiēxiànyuán)

• Danish: telefonist, telefonistinde
• Finnish: operaattori (fi), teleoperaattori (fi); keskuksenhoitaja, vaihteenhoitaja
• French: téléphoniste (fr) m or f
• Galician: telefonista m or f
• German: Telefonist (de) f, Telefonistin (de) f, Vermittlung (de) f
• Greek: τηλεφωνητής (el) m (tilefonitís), τηλεφωνήτρια (el) f (tilefonítria)
• Hebrew: מרכזיה‎ f (merkaziyá)

• Hungarian: kezelő (hu), operátor (hu), (archaic) telefonos kisasszony
• Japanese: 交換手 (こうかんしゅ, kōkanshu)
• Persian: اپراتور‎ (fa) (operātor), تلفنچی‎ (fa) (telefonči)
• Polish: operator (pl) m
• Portuguese: telefonista m or f
• Romanian: operator (ro) m, operatoare (ro) f, telefonistă (ro) f
• Russian: телефони́ст (ru) m (telefoníst), телефони́стка (ru) f (telefonístka), опера́тор (ru) m (operátor)
• Serbo-Croatian: operater (sh) m, оператер m
• Swedish: telefonist (sv) c, telebolag n, operatör (sv) c
• Turkish: operatör (tr)

mathematical operator

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 算子 (zh) (suànzi)

• Czech: operátor (cs) m
• Danish: operator
• Esperanto: operacio (eo)
• Finnish: operaattori (fi)
• French: opérateur (fr) m
• German: Operator (de) m, Rechenzeichen (de) n
• Greek: τελεστής (el) m (telestís)
• Hungarian: műveleti jel (hu), operátor (hu)
• Icelandic: virki m
• Italian: operatore (it) m

• Japanese: 演算子 (えんざんし, enzanshi), 作用素 (さようそ, sayōso)
• Kazakh: оператор (operator)
• Persian: عملگر‎ (fa) ('amalgar)
• Polish: operator (pl) m
• Portuguese: operador (pt) m
• Romanian: operator (ro) m
• Russian: опера́тор (ru) m (operátor)
• Serbo-Croatian: operator (sh) m, djelatelj m
• Swedish: operator (sv) c
• Tagalog: pakilos
• Turkish: operatör (tr)

Chinese whispers — see Chinese whispers

the administrator of a channel or network on IRC

• Greek: διαχειριστής (el) m (diacheiristís), διαχειρίστρια (el) f (diacheirístria)

References

• operator on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• aeroport, aëroport, poor rate

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Latin

Etymology

operor +‎ -tor.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /o.peˈraː.tor/, [ɔpɛˈräːt̪ɔr]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /o.peˈra.tor/, [ɔpɛˈräːt̪ɔr]

Noun

operātor m (genitive operātōris); third declension

1. worker, operator

Declension

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

• Catalan: obrador
• → English: operator
• → French: opérateur
• Italian: operatore
• Old French: ovrëor
  • French: ouvreur
• Piedmontese: operator
• Portuguese: obrador
• → Romanian: operator
• → Russian: опера́тор (operátor)
• Spanish: obrador

Verb

operātor

1. second-person singular future active imperative of operor
2. third-person singular future active imperative of operor

References

• 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

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Northern Kurdish

Etymology

• Ultimately from Latin operātor (“worker”), probably through English operator.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /oːpɛɾɑːˈtoːɾ/

Noun

operator ?

1. surgeon

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Polish

Etymology

From French opérateur, from Latin operātor.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɔ.pɛˈra.tɔr/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

operator m pers (feminine operatorka)

1. machinist, operator
2. (medicine) surgeon

   Synonym: chirurg

3. (cinematography) cameraman, cinematographer
4. (telecommunications) operator (company providing operator services)

Declension

Declension of operator

	singular	plural
nominative	operator	operatorzy
genitive	operatora	operatorów
dative	operatorowi	operatorom
accusative	operatora	operatorów
instrumental	operatorem	operatorami
locative	operatorze	operatorach
vocative	operatorze	operatorzy

Noun

operator m inan

1. (mathematics) operator
2. (linguistics) operator

Declension

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

• (noun) operatornia
• (adjectives) operatorski, operatorowy

Further reading

• operator in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• operator in Polish dictionaries at PWN

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Romanian

Etymology

From French opérateur or Latin operator.

Adjective

operator m or n (feminine singular operatoare, masculine plural operatori, feminine and neuter plural operatoare)

1. operating

Declension

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

operator m (plural operatori)

1. worker, operator

Declension

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

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Serbo-Croatian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /opěraːtor/
• Hyphenation: o‧pe‧ra‧tor

Noun

opèrātor m (Cyrillic spelling опѐра̄тор)

1. (mathematics) operator

Declension

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

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Swedish

Noun

operator c

1. (mathematics, computing) an operator

Declension

Declension of operator
	Singular		Plural
	Indefinite	Definite	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	operator	operatorn	operatorer	operatorerna
Genitive	operators	operatorns	operatorers	operatorernas