animator

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin animator (“one who animates”), a word of post-classical Latin first found in Tertullian in the late 2nd century,^[2][3] formed from the past participial stem of animō (“to give life to, quicken, inspire”) with the agent suffix -or.^[2][3][4] The verb is from anima (“air, breath, life, soul”),^[2][3] which Etymonline traces to Proto-Indo-European *ane- (“to breathe”).^[3] Its use for a person who organizes or leads an activity probably follows French animateur.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person or thing that gives life to, enlivens or encourages someone or something: 1565, in John Stow's Summarie of Englyshe Chronicles.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the 1630s,^[3] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate to 1611,^[5] and Dictionary.com to 1625–35.^[4]

Semantic evolution

For three centuries the word meant only one who or that which animates or inspires;^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as that which gives life, with a quotation from Browne's Vulgar Errors.^[6][2] The film sense, an artist who makes the drawings or models for an animated cartoon, arose in 1918,^[2][7] Etymonline finding it by 1919;^[3] it follows the use of animate for moving pictures, recorded by 1888, and for cartoons by 1911.^[3] After the Second World War the word was also used, probably after French animateur, for a person who drives or coordinates a cultural or other activity (1946).^[2] Canadian English gave it two further senses: a presenter or facilitator,^[8] and a guide in period costume at a historic site who acts the part of a resident of the time, recorded in the Globe and Mail in 1984.^[9][10]

Timeline

• 1565 – a person or thing that animates or enlivens; an encourager.^[2]
• 1918 – a maker of animated films; an artist who draws or models the images for one.^[2][7]
• 1946 – a person who coordinates or promotes a cultural activity, an animateur.^[2]
• 1984 – in Canada, a costumed guide at a historic site.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. An artist who makes animated films or cartoons, or who draws or models the images for them: The studio hired a dozen animators for the feature.^[8][7][2][5]
2. A person who leads an activity and encourages others to take part; a coordinator or animateur.^[7][2][10]
3. (Canada) A presenter or facilitator, especially on television or radio.^[8]
4. (Canada) A guide in period costume at a historic site who acts the part of a person of the time.^[10][9]
5. A person or thing that gives life or spirit to something.^[5][7][2]

Related words

• animate
• animation
• animateur
• anima
• animated

Usage notes

The word is sometimes spelled animater.^[8][4]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b c Dollinger, Stefan, ed., A Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles, 3rd ed. (online), Vancouver: University of British Columbia, dchp.arts.ubc.ca
10. ^ a b c Barber, Katherine, ed. (2004), The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd ed., Toronto: Oxford University Press