operator

See also: Operator, operatör, operátor, and operatør

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin operatōr, from operor (“work, labour”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɒpəˌɹeɪtə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɑpəˌɹeɪɾɚ/
• Hyphenation: op‧er‧ator

Noun

operator (plural operators)

1. One who operates.
   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 1, in The Celebrity:

     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. 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

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 操作者 (zh) (cāozuòzhě)

• Danish: operatør
• Dutch: bediener (nl) m
• Finnish: toimija (fi), operaattori (fi); käyttäjä (fi), koneenkäyttäjä (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)
• Japanese: 操作者 (そうさしゃ, sōsasha), オペレーター (operētā)
• 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

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, f
• Galician: telefonista m, f
• German: Telefonist (de) f, Telefonistin (de) f, Vermittlung (de) f
• Greek: τηλεφωνητής (el) m (tilefonitís), τηλεφωνήτρια (el) f (tilefonítria)
• Hebrew: מרכזיה‎ f (merkaziyá)

• 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, 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 c, telebolag n, operatör (sv) c

mathematical operator

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 算子 (zh) (suànzi)

• Danish: operator
• Finnish: operaattori (fi)
• French: opérateur (fr) m
• German: Operator (de) m, Rechenzeichen n
• Greek: τελεστής (el) m (telestís)
• Hungarian: műveleti jel
• 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)
• 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

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

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Kurdish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈopɛɾɑːtoɾ/

Noun

operator ?

1. surgeon (doctor who performs surgery)

This Kurdish entry was created from the translations listed at surgeon. It may be less reliable than other entries, and may be missing parts of speech or additional senses. Please also see operator in the Kurdish Wiktionary. This notice will be removed when the entry is checked. (more information) April 2008

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Latin

Etymology

operor +‎ -tor.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /o.peˈraː.tor/, [ɔ.pɛˈraː.tɔr]

Noun

operātor m (genitive operātōris); third declension

1. worker, operator

Inflection

Third declension.

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 (borrowed)
• French: opérateur (borrowed), ouvreur
• Italian: operatore
• Old French: ovrëor

• Portuguese: obrador
• Romanian: operator (borrowed)
• Russian: опера́тор (operátor) (borrowed)
• 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, 1883–1887)
• operator in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

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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