operator

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

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: op‧er‧ator

Noun

operator (countable and uncountable, plural operators)

1. A person or organisation that operates a device, system, service, etc.

   The drone crashed because of operator error.

   The new bus operator has promised to improve the frequency of rural services.

   • 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.

2. A telecommunications facilitator whose job is to connect or otherwise assist callers.

   To get an international line, you used to have to go through the operator.

   I kept getting "number unobtainable", so I called the operator to find out what was going on.

3. A member of a military special operations unit.
4. A surgeon; one who performs medical operations.
   • 1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC:

     Oh, a very well-known man. He has a great reputation as an operator for peritonitis.

5. (uncountable) The game of Chinese whispers.
7. (informal) A person who is adept at making deals or getting results, especially one who uses cunning or dishonest methods.
   • 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.

   • 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.

   • 1998, Irvine Welsh, Filth, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 140:

     He started bleating to me this morning aboot being stretched on this hippy stalk. A fuckin waste of time. Big operators flooding the city with smack and three-quarters of the cunts we bang up are daft schemies or students with a wee bit of hash or a few pills for their pals.

   • 2016, C. T. Collier, Planted, Scottsdale, A.Z.: Asdee Press, →ISBN, page 301:

     Hank was saying, "Lyssa showed me the screenshots of Nate's accounts, so we know he's helping himself to Nate's money every month. The guy's a real operator."

   • 2000 May 14, John Sweeney, “Cocky”, in The Observer‎^[1], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 6 April 2023:

     The second thing is that smart operators like Cocky are only in it for the (huge amounts of) money.

   1. (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.

8. (mathematics) A function or other mapping that carries values defined on a domain into another value or set of values in a defined range.
10. (computing) The administrator of a channel or network on IRC.
12. (computing) A symbol that represents a construct in a programming language and differs from a normal function in its syntax.
14. (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.

16. (transport) A bus driver.
18. (by ellipsis, mining) The company that operates a mine; often the same one that owns the mine.

    Coordinate terms: mineowner (often coinstantial); (in contrast) mineworkers, miners, workers, laborers, labor union, trade union; regulator

Hyponyms

• all-operator
• arithmetic operator
• assignment operator
• bastard operator from hell
• binary operator
• bitwise operator
• box operator
• closure operator
• comparison operator
• conditional operator
• co-operator
• crane operator
• d'Alembert operator
• dammit operator
• differential operator
• Dunkl operator
• elevator operator
• elliptic operator
• Elvis operator
• excavator operator
• flip-flop operator
• forklift operator
• Hamiltonian operator
• hull 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
• wave operator
• wireless operator

Derived terms

• cooperator
• eigenoperator
• hyperoperator
• interoperator
• intraoperator
• metaoperator
• nonoperator
• operatorial
• operatorless
• operatorship
• operator theory
• operatress
• operon
• stoperator
• superoperator
• sysop
• teleoperator

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)

• Cornish: oberador m, oberadores f
• 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)
• Hindi: संचालक (hi) m (sañcālak)
• Hungarian: kezelő (hu), gépkezelő (hu), üzemeltető (hu), üzembentartó
• Japanese: 操作者 (そうさしゃ, sōsasha), オペレーター (ja) (operētā)
• Korean: 조작자 (jojakja), 오퍼레이터 (opeoreiteo)
• Macedonian: опера́тор m (operátor)
• 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 (uk) m (operátor)

telecommunications operator

• Bulgarian: телефонѝст (bg) m (telefonìst), телефонѝстка m (telefonìstka)
• Chinese:

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

• Danish: telefonist (da), 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) (operâtor), تلفنچی (fa) (telefonči)
• Polish: operator (pl) m
• Portuguese: telefonista (pt) 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

• Bulgarian: опера́тор (bg) m (operátor)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 運算符 / 运算符 (zh) (yùnsùanfú), 算子 (zh) (suànzǐ)

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

Chinese whispers — see Chinese whispers

the administrator of a channel or network on IRC

• Bulgarian: please add this translation if you can
• Greek: διαχειριστής (el) m (diacheiristís), διαχειρίστρια (el) f (diacheirístria)
• Hindi: संचालक (hi) m (sañcālak)

References

• “operator n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present.

Further reading

• operator on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• aeroport, aëroport, poor rate

Indonesian

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin operātor.

Pronunciation

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /opəˈrator/ [o.pəˈra.t̪ɔr]
• Rhymes: -ator
• Syllabification: o‧pe‧ra‧tor

Noun

operator (plural operator-operator)

1. operator

Derived terms

• operator boolean
• operator ekonomi
• operator pemrosesan data
• operator pendekodean
• operator relasional
• operator telepon
• operator wisata

Further reading

• “operator”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

Latin

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *h₃ep-

Proto-Indo-European *-os

Proto-Indo-European *h₃épos

Proto-Italic *opos

Latin opus

Latin opera

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂

Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂

Proto-Indo-European *-tós

Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂tos

Proto-Italic *-ātos

Latin -ātus

Latin operātusbf.

Latin operor

Proto-Indo-European *-tōr

Proto-Italic *-tōr

Latin -tor

Latin operātor

From operor + -tor.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ɔ.pɛˈraː.tɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [o.peˈraː.tor]

Noun

operātor m (genitive operātōris); third declension

1. worker, operator

Declension

Third-declension noun.

	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/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, 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

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /oːpɛɾɑːˈtoːɾ/

Noun

operator ?

1. surgeon

Polish

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *h₃ep-

Proto-Indo-European *-os

Proto-Indo-European *h₃épos

Proto-Italic *opos

Latin opus

Latin opera

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂

Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂

Proto-Indo-European *-tós

Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂tos

Proto-Italic *-ātos

Latin -ātus

Latin operātusbf.

Latin operor

Proto-Indo-European *-tōr

Proto-Italic *-tōr

Latin -tor

Latin operātor

French opérateurbor.

Polish operator

Borrowed from French opérateur, from Latin operātor.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɔ.pɛˈra.tɔr/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -atɔr
• Syllabification: o‧pe‧ra‧tor

Noun

operator m pers (female equivalent 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, operatory1
genitive	operatora	operatorów
dative	operatorowi	operatorom
accusative	operatora	operatorów
instrumental	operatorem	operatorami
locative	operatorze	operatorach
vocative	operatorze	operatorzy

¹Deprecative.

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

adjectives

• operatorowy
• operatorski

noun

• operatornia

Further reading

• “operator”, in Wielki słownik języka polskiego‎^[2] (in Polish), Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• “operator”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[3] (in Polish)

Romanian

Etymology

Etymology tree

French opérateurbor.

Proto-Indo-European *h₃ep-

Proto-Indo-European *-os

Proto-Indo-European *h₃épos

Proto-Italic *opos

Latin opus

Latin opera

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂

Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂

Proto-Indo-European *-tós

Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂tos

Proto-Italic *-ātos

Latin -ātus

Latin operātusbf.

Latin operor

Proto-Indo-European *-tōr

Proto-Italic *-tōr

Latin -tor

Latin operatorlbor.

Romanian operator

Borrowed from French opérateur, or a learned borrowing from Latin operator. By surface analysis, opera + -tor.

Adjective

operator m or n (feminine singular operatoare, masculine plural operatori, feminine/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

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	operator	operatorul	operatori	operatorii
genitive-dative	operator	operatorului	operatori	operatorilor
vocative	operatorule		operatorilor

Serbo-Croatian

Pronunciation

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

Noun

opèrātor m inan (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

Swedish

Noun

operator c

1. (mathematics, computing) an operator

Declension

Declension of operator

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	operator	operators
	definite	operatorn	operatorns
plural	indefinite	operatorer	operatorers
	definite	operatorerna	operatorernas