converter

Etymology

It is formed from English convert + -er.^[2][3][4][5] The verb convert came through Old French convertir from Latin convertō (“to turn around, transform”), from com- and vertō (“to turn”), from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to turn, bend”).^[4] Collins also gives the spelling “convertor”.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who turns one thing into another, or turns a thing to another use or to their own use: 1533, in Tyndale.^[2][7] Etymonline dates the word to the 1530s in the sense "one who makes converts",^[4] which the OED records from 1576.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word first named people: those who change one thing into another and those who win others over to a faith or party,^[2][3] the sense Johnson (1755) gave as its only meaning.^[8] From 1811 it was a trade name for those who converted rough timber, or iron into steel.^[2] From 1867 it named the large lined vessel in which molten iron is turned into steel,^[2][4] and in the late 1880s apparatus in general and electrical devices that change one kind of current into another.^[2] The 20th century added a cipher machine (1942, US), a computing device (1950) and a reactor that turns fertile material into fissile material (1953).^[2] In law, a converter is one who wrongfully takes or disposes of another's property.^[9]

Timeline

• 1533 – a person who converts one thing into another.^[2][7]
• 1576 – a person who makes converts.^[2]
• 1811 – a worker who converts timber, or iron into steel.^[2]
• 1867 – a vessel for making steel.^[2][4]
• 1888 – an electrical device that changes current.^[2]
• 1889 – an apparatus for converting one thing into another.^[2]
• 1950 – in computing.^[2]
• 1953 – a converter reactor.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person or thing that converts something.^[6][7][2]
2. A device that changes alternating current to direct current or the reverse, or that changes a signal from one frequency to another or from analogue to digital form.^[6][2]
3. A vessel in which molten metal is refined by a blast of air or oxygen, as in the Bessemer process.^[6][2][7]
4. A worker or machine that performs a step in turning materials into a manufactured product.^[7][2]
5. A converter reactor, a nuclear reactor that turns fertile material into fissile material.^[6][2]
6. A person who makes converts to a faith or opinion.^[2][8]
7. (law) A person who wrongfully keeps or disposes of another's property.^[9]

Word family

• teleconverter
• torque converter
• Bessemer converter
• catalytic converter

Related words

• convert
• conversion
• convertible
• invert
• revert

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 q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West