translator
(trɑːnsˈleɪtə(r), træns-, -nz-)
Also 4–6 -oure, 4–8 -our, 5 -ore, 6–7 -er.
[a. OF. translator, -our, F. -eur (12th c. in Godef. Compl.), or L. translātor, agent-n. of transferre: see translate and -or.]
One who (or that which) translates.
1. a. One who translates or renders from one language into another; the author of a translation.
| 13.. in Horstm. Altengl. Leg. (1878) 25/1101 Of al translatours in to latyn He was flour enditour fyn. c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 96 Whiche word þe Ebru translatoure, Aquyla interpretid, ‘and þe Lord confermede’. 1413 Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton) v. xiv. (1859) 82 The symple and vnsuffisaunt translatore of this litel book. 1509 Barclay Shyp of Folys (1570) 260 Go Booke,..By thy submission excuse thy Translatour [rime honour]. a 1680 Butler Rem. (1759) II. 405 A Translater dyes an Author, like an old Stuff, into a new Colour. 1778 Warton Hist. Eng. Poetry II. Notes 19 Lapus de Castellione, a Florentine civilian, and a great translator from Greek into Latin, about the year 1350. 1837 Lockhart Scott II. iv. 121 Mr. Cary, the translator of Dante. |
b. One who renders a painting by engraving, or the like: cf. translation 2 b.
| 1855 Gentl. Mag. XLIII. 657/1 Mr. C. Blair Leighton..lithographer..was one of the earliest translators of water and oil pictures by the chromatic process. 1888 W. P. Frith Autobiog. III. vii. 159 The delightful art of Thomas [Landseer, the engraver], so thoroughly in sympathy with his brother [Edwin, the painter], places the producer in the front rank of the company of translators. 1897 Daily News 5 Feb. 8/6 Line engraving and mezzotint—both of them used largely in the service of the ‘translators’. |
c. Computers. A program that translates from one (esp. programming) language into another.
| 1958 A. J. Perlis et al. (title) Internal translator (IT) a compiler for the 650. 1959 [see language n. 1 d]. 1972 Computer Jrnl. XV. 229/1 General parsing algorithms..used in actual translators are characterised by the use of classes of grammars which are subsets of the class of context free grammars. 1981 Pohl & Shaw Nature of Computation vi. 193 Language processors, such as translators and interpreters, are called systems programs or systems software because they are normally part of the total computer system presented to a user. |
2. a. One who transforms, changes, or alters; spec. a cobbler who renovates old shoes.
| 1594 Merry Knack in Hazl. Dodsley VI. 566 As long as Jeffrey the translater is Mayor of the town. 1638 R. Brathwait Barnabees Jrnl. A vj, That paltry Patcher is a bald Translater. a 1658 Cleveland Gen. Poems (1677) 23 I'm no Translator, have no vein To turn a Woman young again. 1693 Humours Town 77 The Jolly Translator, of Shoes, I mean, not Authors. 1700 T. Brown Amusem. Ser. & Com. 130 The Cobler is Affronted, if you don't call him Mr. Translator. 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 198/2 I'm a ‘translator’ by trade. 1886 Daily News 15 Oct. 3/6 ‘Translators’, who cunningly metamorphose..old leather almost into new goods. |
b. transf. pl. A ‘translated’ pair of shoes. slang.
| 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 51/2 To wear a pair of second-hand ones [boots], or ‘translators’ (as they are called), is felt as a bitter degradation. |
c. (See quot.)
| 1884 Knight Dict. Mech. Supp., Translator,..an instrument whereby one form of energy is converted into another. For instance, the power of a prime motor, say a steam engine, is translated by means of a magneto-electric engine into electricity. 1891 in Cent. Dict. |
† 3. One who transfers or transports. Obs.
| 1545 Joye Exp. Dan. v. I v b, The changer and translator of kyngedoms and tymes. 1630 R. Brathwait Eng. Gentlem. (1641) 53 That translator of the Median Empire to the Persians, victorious Cyrus. a 1633 Austin Medit. (1635) 94 Constantine the Emperor (whom they make a great Translator of Bones) would not let them rest in their Graves. |
4. a. An automatic repeater in long-distance telegraphy. Cf. translation 6.
| 1855 Patent Office Specif. No. 314 The use of translators in connection with submarine cables. 1876 Preece & Sivewright Telegr. iv. §111 A distance is at last reached where direct working is impossible, and where it becomes necessary..to introduce mechanical repeaters or translators at some intermediate station to bring into play fresh currents. |
b. A relay set or station which receives television signals and retransmits them without demodulating them.
| 1958 New Scientist 25 Sept. 898/2 Instead of receiving signals, demodulating them to visual or aural form and then re-transmitting, it just passes on the original signals. The BBC calls it a translator. 1960 Practical Wireless XXXVI. 330/2 Tentative plans are being considered for a considerable number of additional TV ‘translator’ stations of very low power. 1966 Daily Tel. 17 Oct. 9/5 TIE may have solved the problem with a television translator powered by sunlight... The translator set on a high point would receive and re-transmit signals to isolated communities. |
5. attrib. and Comb.
| 1885 Pall Mall G. 29 Jan. 4/2 The extraordinary merit of their translator-engravers. 1887 Ibid. 28 Sept. 2/2 [He] has fallen into the clutches of a ‘translator-traitor’ if ever there was one, who has not only corrected no blunder, but added an enormous mass of mistranslations and misprints. 1891 Ibid. 8 Dec. 3/1 A little spurt of undignified and vindictive petulance, a new form of translator-treachery. |
Hence transˈlatorship, the function of a translator (in quot. 1786 humorously with possessive as a title).
| 1786 Cowper Let. to Lady Hesketh 11 Feb., You must return it [specimen of Homer]..to my translatorship. 1835 Fraser's Mag. XII. 53 An aspirant for the honours of translatorship. |