abˈstractor
[a. L. abstractor, n. of agent f. abstract-us: see abstract.]
= abstracter. (Analogically the more regular form.) One who makes abstracts; spec. as the title of a grade of clerks in the Civil Service. Also attrib.
The office of abstractor arose from the requirements of Section 6 of the Births and Deaths Registration Act of 1836, according to which the Registrar General was to prepare ‘a general abstract of the number of births, deaths and marriages’. Before 1855 the members of the staff at Somerset House engaged on this work were designated ‘task-workers’. From 1890 onwards the term has been applied to a new class of ‘assistant clerks’ in various departments. The spelling abstracter gave place to abstractor between 1859 and 1866.
| 1646 Quarles Sheph. Or. ix. If each abstraction draws A curse upon the abstractor from those laws, How can your Councels scape this judgment then? 1855 (Aug.) Statistical abstracter [appointed at the General Register Office, Somerset House]. 1897 Westm. Gaz. 3 Sept. 1/2 The old writers or copyists are to be done away with; and in their stead an army of ‘abstractors’ substituted. 1901 Daily Chron. 5 Oct. 6/5 Two abstractor clerks in the War Office. 1927 Balbi Deafness Expl. title-p., Appointed by the Institution of Electrical Engineers as Abstractor to Science Abstracts in Electro Acoustics. 1964 Times Lit. Suppl. 2 Jan. 16/1 (Advt.), [We] require an abstractor..for our new Research and Development Centre at Harlow. |