compiler

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English compilour,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman compilour, also compileor and compileur,^[2][4][5] from Latin compīlātor,^[2][4] which Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com give as Late Latin.^[6][7] The Latin word is an agent noun from compīlō (“to plunder, rob”),^[4][2] the source of compile, which Etymonline takes as originally "to bundle together, heap up", from com- (“with, together”) and pīlō (“to compress, ram down”).^[4] Klein connects that verb with pīla (“pillar”).^[8] The English word was later assimilated to nouns in -er.^[2] Middle and early modern English also had compilator, directly from Latin, from about 1400.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A chronicler, one who makes a compilation: about 1330, in Mannyng's Chronicle, where a historian is called a compiloure.^[2][3][4] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from 1280–1307.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The OED notes that the history of compile is unclear: Latin compīlātor was used as a reproach against Virgil and is usually taken as "plunderer", but Isidore explained it as one who mixes other people's words with his own, as spice-makers pound different things together in a mortar.^[2] In Middle English the word meant a chronicler or an author;^[3] the sense of an original author or composer lasted until 1654.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as one who makes a composition out of the work of various authors.^[9] In 1713 Pope used it of a builder, a sense that did not last.^[2] In computing, from 1953, a compiler is a routine or program that translates a program into machine code.^[2][10][6]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – a chronicler, one who compiles.^[2][3]
• c. 1400 – compilator, a plagiarist or compiler.^[4]
• before 1500 – an original author or composer (obsolete by 1654).^[2]
• 1713 – a builder (obsolete).^[2]
• 1953 – in computing, a program that translates other programs into machine code.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who compiles information or material from various sources into a book, list or the like: the compiler of a local bus timetable.^[10][6][2]
2. (computing) A program that translates source code written in a high-level programming language into machine language.^[10][6][2]

Related words

• compile
• compilation
• compilator

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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)
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
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