monitor

▪ I. monitor, n.
    (ˈmɒnɪtə(r))
    Also 7–8 -our.
    [a. L. monitor, agent-n. f. monēre to advise, warn, admonish: see -or.]
    1. a. One who admonishes or gives advice or warning to another as to his conduct. Now somewhat arch. † Also (rare), one who advises another to do some particular action, an instigator.

1596 Bacon Max. & Use Com. Law i. xvi. (1636) 61 When a man is author and monitor to another to commit an unlawfull act. 1616 ― Adv. Villiers in Cabala (1663) 42 In this [sc. religion] you need not be a Monitor to the King; the chiefest of his imperiall titles, is, to be The Defender of the Faith. 1630 R. Brathwait Eng. Gentlem. (1641) 116 Though reason like a discreet Monitor advise them to Moderate their passions. 1630 Bp. Hall Occas. Medit. xc. (1633) 229 O God, thou art still equally mercifull... Let the sound of thy faithfull monitors smite my eares. 1692 Dryden Cleomenes i. i, Panth. You promis'd Patience, Sir. Cleom. Thou art a Scurvy Monitor, I am Patient. 1751 Johnson Rambler No. 155 ¶5 The officious monitor is persecuted with hatred..because he assumes that superiority which we are not willing to grant him. 1771 Burke Corr. (1844) I. 278 Strict and faithful monitors, that keep watch on every action of my life. 1830 Cunningham Brit. Paint. II. 231 ‘George’, said his monitor, ‘you must have reasons for keeping such company.’ 1855 Thackeray Newcomes II. i. 7 ‘You boast of its being over. You see it is not over’, says Clive's monitor and companion.

    b. transf. of things more or less personified. (Often of conscience.)

1651 Jer. Taylor Serm. Gold. Grove, Summer xiii. 162 A final judgement is no good monitor to him, to whom it is a severe executioner. 1759 Sterne Tr. Shandy ii. xvii, Conscience, this once able monitor,—placed on high as a judge within us. 1824 Hogg Conf. Sinner 1 Of the matter furnished by the latter of these powerful monitors [sc. history and tradition], I have no reason to complain.

    2. A senior pupil in a school, or (formerly in England and still in America) a student in a college, who has special duties assigned to him, esp. that of keeping order, and who may occasionally (as in some elementary schools) act as a teacher to a junior class.

1546 in Peacock Stat. Cambr. (1841) 123 Let them [sc. the deans] appoint six monitors, two for public worship and four for speaking Latin [i.e. to enforce the speaking of Latin]. 1607 Stat. in Hist. Wakefield Gram. Sch. (1892) 65 Theire severall absences, negligencies and misbehaviours..given up by the monitours in their bille. 1612 Brinsley Lud. Lit. 295 The Monitours of that weeke. a 1656 Bp. Hall Rem. Wks. (1660) 248 Even the most carelesse boyes will be affraid to offend in the face of the monitor. 1764 Mem. G. Psalmanazar 75 This mark of distinction [sc. a large riband] did moreover entitle me to be head monitor and marshal of that whole school. 1841 Elphinstone Hist. Ind. I. 353 They are taught, with the aid of monitors, in the manner introduced from Madras into England. 1848 Stat. & Laws Harvard (1854) 11 Monitors are appointed, and their duties and compensation fixed, by the Faculty. 1875 A. R. Hope My Schoolboy Fr. 76 We looked to see that none of the monitors were in sight. 1882 New Educ. Code (ed. J. Russell) 23 Temporary monitors employed in place of the teachers causing the vacancies are recognised as part of the school staff.

    3. a. Something that reminds or gives warning.

1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. v. i. §32 That picture was placed there by the Cardinals own appointment, to be to him a monitour of humility. 1675 Traherne Chr. Ethics 202 All our enjoyments..are daily monitors of mercy to us, because they are purchased by the blood of Christ. 169. Locke Educ. §107 The Pains that come from the Necessities of Nature, are Monitors to us to beware of greater Mischiefs, which they are the Fore-runners of. 1760 Gray Corr. w. Nicholls (1843) 205, I sympathise with your gout: it would be strange if I did not, with so many internal monitors as I carry about me, that hourly bid me expect it myself this autumn. 1791 W. Bartram Carolina 100 At the reanimating appearance of the rising sun, nature again revives; and I obey the chearful summons of the gentle monitors of the meads and groves. 1840 Bp. A. Jolly Observ. Sunday Serv. 219 Such emblematical rites..cleared of superstition, are useful helps and monitors to our weak minds.

    b. One who is appointed to listen to and report on radio broadcasts, esp. from a foreign country.

1939 Times 2 Nov. 5/3 The material, after it is taken down and translated by the monitors, is summarized by an editorial staff. 1945 Times 26 May 2/4 In another room monitors were listening to Morse signals. 1974 Daily Tel. 16 July 1/2 Radio monitors heard what purported to be a 20-second reading by the Archbishop.

    c. Broadcasting. A device for indicating or ascertaining the technical quality of a transmission without disturbing the transmission itself; esp. (also monitor screen, monitor tube) a television screen for displaying the picture from a particular camera or that being transmitted. Freq. attrib.

1931 A. Nadell Projecting Sound Pictures ii. 36 The projectionist has only to listen to the sound in his monitor and adjust the guides until the disturbance disappears. 1934 Proc. IRE XXII. 450 The monitors are designed for continuous operation, giving a continuous indication of the radio transmitter's frequency, and enabling the radio station operator to tell at a glance whether the transmitter is within the assigned limits. 1944 R. E. Lee Television 155 The video engineer clamps down one of the ‘pots’ on his control panel, draining the light from the monitor screen. 1958 M. Dickens Man Overboard x. 155 He caught sight of himself on the small monitor screen at one side of the cameras. Ibid. 160, I saw myself on the monitor. 1959 Listener 13 Aug. 238/1 In their monitors the searchers could see the boxes televised by the camera 200 feet down beneath the surface of the lake. 1961 G. Millerson Technique Telev. Production i. 16 Above each camera's control unit is a monitor-tube on which its picture is displayed. 1961 K. R. Sturley Sound & Television Broadcasting v. 338 Equipment known as a ‘transmitter executive monitor’ may be installed at a station to keep a watch on distortion due to overload and noise such as hum. 1969 Times 22 July (Moon Suppl.) p. i/1 There's a great deal of contrast in it and currently it's upside down on our monitor but we can make out a fair amount of detail. 1971 H. E. Ennes Television Broadcasting i. 32 On the monitor panel are located adjustments for the kinescope focus and brightness.., oscilloscope (waveform monitor) focus and brightness, and a switch to accommodate monitoring either the line waveform..or the field waveform..on the oscilloscope tube.

    d. Any instrument or device for monitoring some process or quantity; spec. one for detecting or measuring radioactivity.

1948 Nucl. Sci. Abstr. I. 282 The different types of radiation distribution..and detecting devices, such as air monitors..are briefly explained. 1958 O. R. Frisch Nucl. Handbk. ii. 9 A special monitor..has been designed for the use of persons leaving a laboratory; this counts α- or β-activity on both sides of the two hands. 1961 Rev. Sci. Instruments XXXII. 1098 (heading) Transmission current monitor for high energy electron beams. 1962 IRE Trans. Audio X. 132/1 The audio-radar monitor recorder is designed to continuously monitor and record 16 audio channels and one radar display on a single reel of magnetic tape. 1966 P. J. O'Higgins Basic Instrumentation x. 289 A monitor is an instrument that is used to measure continuously or at intervals a quantity or condition that must be kept within a prescribed limit. An example is the oil gauge in an automobile. 1973 Biomed. Engin. VIII. 255/3 There are situations in which a portable monitor can with advantage be replaced by a permanently-installed instrument which performs a ‘watch-dog’ function and gives warning if the radiation level rises above a pre-set value (or alternatively warns if any radiation is present at times when none should exist). 1973 Daily Tel. 10 Aug. 3 (Advt.), A foetal heart monitor..enables medical staff to tune in to the heart-beat of an unborn baby. 1974 Rev. Sci. Instruments XLV. viii. p. xi (Advt.), Continuous liquid helium level monitor.

    † 4. = back-board 4. Obs.

1784 Cowper Task ii. 585 A Monitor is wood—plank shaven thin. We wear it at our backs. 1828 Lights & Shades I. 315 In one corner of the room may be seen Miss Jenny choaking in a monitor. 1831 Britton Irishmen & Irishwom. (ed. 3) 67 Every real young lady she averred ought to wear monitors and steel collars.

    5. A large lizard of the family Varanidæ, found in Africa, Asia, and Australia; so called from being supposed to give warning of the vicinity of crocodiles.

1826 Prichard Research. Phys. Hist. Man (ed. 2) I. 73 Africa possesses the Monitors. 1832 Lyell Princ. Geol. II. 103 The monitor of New Holland is specifically distinct from the Indian species; these latter again from the African. 1884 American VIII. 218 Large monitors and many smaller lizards abound. 1900 Westm. Gaz. 19 Apr. 1/3 Among the latest arrivals at the Zoo is a Bengal monitor. 1958 [see agamid]. 1965 R. McKie Company of Animals i. 3 Not twenty paces away was a six-foot Malayan lizard, a monitor, grey against the shingle.

    6. a. An ironclad having a very low free-board and one or more revolving turrets containing great guns, built on the model of the vessel invented by Captain Ericsson (see quot. 1862).

1862 Ericsson Let. 20 Jan. in Church Life (1890) I. 255 The iron-clad intruder will thus prove a severe monitor to those leaders [sc. of the Southern Rebellion]... On these and many similar grounds I propose to name the new battery Monitor. 1864 Ibid. II. 49 The ability of a dozen monitors to take Charleston. 1862 [see ironclad n.]. 1887 Westm. Rev. June 368 It is stated that the United States possesses fourteen monitors twenty years old, and five in process of construction.

attrib. 1864 H. Draper in Q. Jrnl. Sci. I. 520 When a person enters a Monitor turret, he cannot fail to feel a sensation of absolute protection, surrounded as he is on all sides by 11 inches of iron.

    b. An ironclad railway truck carrying a big gun.

1885 W. W. Burns in Century Mag. July 460 General Lee's famous railroad monitor was approaching.

    7. U.S. (In full monitor roof or monitor top.) A raised part of a roof (e.g. in a railway-carriage or omnibus), with openings for light and ventilation. Hence monitor-car.

1871 Snow Pathfinder 2 ‘The roofs [of certain railway passenger cars] are of the monitor pattern’, meaning slightly elevated along the centre, to make the car airy. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech., Monitor-car.

    8. A jointed nozzle used in hydraulic mining, which may be turned in any direction.

1881 Raymond Mining Gloss. 1883 Century Mag. Jan. 324 Pipes from fifteen to thirty inches in diameter..may be seen winding through a hydraulic mine. These pipes terminate in monitors, each discharging a gleaming shaft of water so powerful as to toss about rocks, tons in weight. 1891 Engineer LXXII. 217 The monitor..has a ball joint that permits it to be slung in any direction. 1898 [see hydraulic a. 1].

    9. attrib. (see also 3 c), as monitor man, monitor room, monitor speaker; monitor lizard = sense 5.

1869 P. Gillmore tr. Figuier's Reptiles & Birds (1870) 13 In the Crocodiles and *Monitor Lizards..a mutilated part is not renewed. 1908 E. J. Banfield Confessions of Beachcomber i. iii. 99 There is..no iguana (rather, monitor lizard), though a fair variety of other reptiles. 1947 I. L. Idriess Isles of Despair xiv. 92 The great carved head of Kodal the crocodile, of Karum the monitor lizard. 1966 D. Forbes Heart of Malaya viii. 93 The only creature we saw was a six-foot long monitor lizard slithering across the road.

1929 Photoplay (Chicago) Apr. 31/2 *Monitor man, the person who operates the volume control on talking picture production, modulating sounds as they come through the microphone so as to get a more even and natural tone.

1931 Star 8 May 12/1 The ‘*monitor room’ where the sound experts listen to the conversation was moved 50 feet away.

1960 O. Skilbeck ABC of Film & TV 86 *Monitor speaker, loudspeaker used as a check in dubbing, or as an alternative to headphones by recordists. 1975 Independent Broadcasting Aug. 11/1 The technical area with two mixing desks..and two monitor speakers.

    
    

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     Senses 3 b–d in Dict. become 3 d–f. Add: [3.] b. One who uses monitoring equipment to check levels, standards, etc.

1928 Paramount Studio News 20 Sept., Monitor, the engineer on the set where the talking picture is filmed. He is in constant telephonic communication with the mixing panel, recording room and amplifying room. 1930 Pitkin & Marston Art of Sound Pictures x. 226 In the monitor room sits a sound monitor, who mixes the currents from different microphones in such a way that the best possible sound effects are produced. 1973 Gloss. Terms Nucl. Sci. & Technol. (B.S.I.) 34 Monitor. 1. A device whose purpose is to measure the level of ionizing radiation... 2. A person who uses a monitor. 1993 Guardian 18 Oct. i. 8/2 A monitor aboard the Greenpeace vessel, stationed about 50 yards from the Russian tanker..said he had measured radiation levels in the air that were more than 10 times the normal level.

    c. A monitoring loudspeaker, either in a recording studio or placed on stage within earshot of the performers. Also monitor speaker.

1929 F. Green Film finds its Tongue xvii. 232 The ‘mixer’..has come down out of the monitor booth. 1949 J. G. Frayne & H. Wolfe Elem. Sound Recording xi. 196 Music is monitored and mixed in a ‘monitor booth’, which is acoustically insulated from the recording stage and provided with a monitor loudspeaker. Ibid., In disk recording for manufacture of phonograph records and transcriptions, the monitor booth is usually used... Less emphasis is placed on checking..by means of the monitor than in film recording. 1960 O. Skilbeck ABC of Film & TV 86 Monitor speaker, loudspeaker used as a check in dubbing, or as an alternative to headphones by recordists. 1975 Independent Broadcasting Aug. 11/1 The technical area with two mixing desks..and two monitor speakers. 1989 Guitar Player Mar. 27/2 (Advt.), There's even a ‘wet’ stage monitor mix for your singer, using a reverb-to-monitor feature.

    [e.] Hence, a VDU connected to a computer to display its output.

1977 Computer Design Apr. 151/2 The color monitor within the case can be driven simultaneously with a separate black and white monitor and video hardcopy printer. 1982 S. Bellow Dean's December i. 5 On the electronic screen of the monitor, symbols and digits shimmied and whirled. 1990 Inmac Nov. 28/1 The VGA monitor produces high resolution VGA graphics, with excellent image definition and colour.

    [f.] Also, a computer program which controls the running of other programs; an operating system.

1962 in IBM Systems Jrnl. (1963) II. 161 (title) IBM 7090/7094 operating systems: basic monitor (IBSYS). 1963 IBM Systems Jrnl. II. 155 The Fortran ii monitor system..was developed by North American Aviation Inc...and introduced in 1959. 1979 Personal Computer World Nov. 82/1 Some monitors can support more than one user program simultaneously. 1989 Byte Aug. 142/3 The monitor program will power down these selections of the computer to conserve battery power.

▪ II. ˈmonitor, v.
    [f. prec. n.]
    1. trans. To guide as a monitor. nonce-wd.

1818 Keats Endym. iv. 884 In that same void white Chastity shall sit, And monitor me nightly to lone slumber.

    2. a. To check or regulate the technical quality of (a radio transmission, television signal, etc.).

1924 [implied in monitoring vbl. n.]. 1929 G. Allighan Romance of Talkies 64 During the recording, the mixer operator monitors the record through the light valves, thereby assuring himself that no record is lost. 1930 Bell System Techn. Jrnl. IX. 273 The..control desk provides facilities by which the attendant can monitor the incoming voice currents and the outgoing radio signal. 1934 Electronics May 139/2 Methods of monitoring program transmission both visually and aurally. 1958 Times Rev. Industry Aug. 9/3 The output from the analyser can be monitored with headphones. 1962 A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio 258 The signal is monitored by the limiter and any wave which exceeds a certain volume causes a corresponding increase in feedback, which reduces the signal.

    b. To listen to and report on (radio broadcasts, esp. from a foreign country); also, to eavesdrop on (a telephone conversation).

1939 Times 2 Nov. 5/3 About 150 news bulletins alone, in many different languages, are monitored each day. 1948 Amer. Speech XXIII. 219 From secret radios, constructed and hidden by British prisoners, the B.B.C.'s broadcasts were monitored. 1955 F. Swinnerton Sumner Intrigue xi. 85 A telephonist had illegitimately monitored a conversation. 1958 ‘N. Shute’ Rainbow & Rose i. 7 We've been monitoring their frequency. Ibid. 22 The constable sat down to monitor the conversations. 1971 R. Dentry Encounter at Kharmel v. 92 If I were running Ziauddin's operation, I'd be monitoring every newscast in Asia. 1972 D. Haston In High Places vi. 74 We sat for three weeks in Kleine Scheidegg, monitoring weather forecasts twice a day.

    c. In more general use: to observe, supervise, or keep under review; to measure or test at intervals, esp. for the purpose of regulation or control.

1944 Times 20 Mar. 5/7 American and British control officers work at the same desks throughout the 24 hours, ‘monitoring’ the aircraft as they travel across the 3,000 miles of ocean. 1947 C. Goodman Sci. & Engin. Nuclear Power I. 255 We must monitor the cooling water to be sure that it contains no dangerous activities. 1957 Listener 3 Oct. 501/2 The Royal Observer Corps have been given the vital job of monitoring the extent of fall-out all over the country. 1958 Observer 9 Nov. 17/5 The phonocardiograph is useful in monitoring the [unborn] child's heart when the mother is sleeping or is over-anxious. 1959 Daily Tel. 14 Apr. 1/6 The committee was set up in November, 1956, to initiate and monitor a programme of research design. 1961 New Scientist 21 Dec. 744/1 The principle is now used..to monitor (while in service) the thickness of boiler shell and pipe walls that are subject to corrosion. 1966 Lancet 24 Dec. 1387/1 Pulse-rate and blood-pressure were closely monitored. 1967 S. Woodgate in Wills & Yearsley Handbk. Management Technol. 94 These work schedules give supervision and management the ability to monitor progress and to detect immediately if delays to schedules are occurring. 1972 Sci. Amer. Aug. 110/3 The radius of the mirror was monitored frequently during the grinding operation by a center-of-curvature test. 1974 Nature 17 May 204/2 Thirty-five inspectors monitor the 2,000-odd works registered under the Alkali Act. 1974 Physics Bull. Nov. 533/1 Traces of metals in air and water as low as 0·01 parts per million can be monitored with the latest instrument.

    So ˈmonitored ppl. a.; ˈmonitoring vbl. n. and ppl. a.

1924 Proc. IRE XII. 561 A third requirement relates to monitoring facilities. 1929 G. Allighan Romance of Talkies 64 Acoustic treatment of the walls of the monitoring room secures the reverberation characteristic of the theatre. 1933 Electronics June 160 A monitoring panel and a two-way communication system so that the operator may keep in constant communication with the pilot of a landing aircraft. 1937 Discovery Nov. 330/2 At the side of the studio there is a ‘monitoring’ television receiving set, so that the floor directors and the announcers can see the outgoing programme. 1939 Times 2 Nov. 5/3 Monitoring consists of listening to and recording information contained in programmes broadcast by other countries. Ibid., The monitoring service [of the B.B.C.] deals with some 250,000 words every 24 hours. 1945 Times 7 Apr. 4/7 The Japanese Government intended to continue its efforts..according to a monitored report from the United States Office of War Information. 1949 Atomic Energy & Life Sci. (U.S. Atomic Energy Comm.) 61 Automatic monitoring equipment, measuring radioactivity of water..would stop flow if radiation were above safe limit. 1961 Lancet 22 July 187/2 Continuous monitoring of the atrial pressure would provide early warning of a dangerous rise. 1962 B.S.I. News Mar. 24/2 Two types of plug are dealt with in B.S. 196: two-pole and two-pole and pilot contact, the latter being chiefly required for use with electrical interlocks or with ‘monitored earth’ circuits. 1971 Hi-Fi Sound Feb. 66/1 Systems of this standard are, or can be, of ‘monitoring’ class—the sort of equipment Hi-Fi Sound would use for examining the qualities of new recordings or evaluating new cartridges or other components. 1972 Accountant 17 Aug. 214/1 A period of..regulated and monitored practical training.

Oxford English Dictionary