commentator

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin commentātor (“interpreter”),^[2][3][4] in classical Latin "deviser, inventor, author",^[4][5][6] the agent noun of commentor (“to think over, discuss, write about”),^[5][2][6] a frequentative of comminīscor (“to devise, contrive”).^[5][2] The Latin verb is related to commentum, the source of the noun comment, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to think”).^[7][5] The OED notes that the modern English sense is associated with comment and commentary;^[5] Etymonline calls the word an agent noun in Latin form from comment or commentary.^[3] Modern French has commentateur.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

An author, a writer of commentaries: before 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus, which refers to "þe commentator" as an authority.^[8][3] The OED's first record is a 15th-century translation of Higden's Polychronicon, where the word means a chronicler, a writer of historical commentaries, a sense now obsolete.^[5][8]

Semantic evolution

From the 1640s the word meant a writer of notes or explanatory comments on a literary work, the writer of a commentary.^[5][3] Johnson (1755) glossed it "expositor; annotator", quoting Dryden and Addison.^[9] The 20th century added the broadcasting senses: a person who gives a spoken commentary, first recorded in the BBC Handbook of 1928,^[5] originally of sport according to Etymonline;^[3] since 1938 it has also meant a person who reports and comments on current events, especially on radio or television, a use that began in the United States.^[5] Collins gives the sports commentator as the main current sense.^[10]

Timeline

• before 1398 – an author or commentator, in Trevisa.^[8]
• 15th century – a chronicler, a writer of historical commentaries (obsolete).^[5][8]
• 1641 – a writer of explanatory comments or critical notes on a text.^[5][3]
• 1928 – a person who gives a spoken commentary, especially on a sporting event.^[5][3]
• 1938 – a person who reports and discusses current events, originally in the United States.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who gives a spoken commentary on an event as it happens, especially a sporting event, on radio or television: a cricket commentator.^[10][5]
2. A person who reports and discusses current events, often giving an opinion on them, in the press or on radio or television: a political commentator.^[4][5]
3. A person who writes a commentary or explanatory notes on a text; an annotator.^[10][4][5]

Word family

• commentatorially
• commentate
• supercommentator

Related words

• commentary
• comment
• mental
• mind

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins