generator

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈdʒen.ər.eɪ.tə/, US /ˈdʒen.ər.eɪ.t̬ɚ/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin generātor (“a begetter, producer”), an agent noun from the past participle stem of generō (“to bring forth”) (see generation).^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who begets, causes or produces: 1646 in the OED and Merriam-Webster, the 1640s in Etymonline.^[4][3][2]

Semantic evolution

The feminine generatrix is from the 1650s.^[2] A thing that generates, especially an apparatus producing power or gas, is from 1794,^[2][4] and a machine producing electricity from 1879.^[2] In music the generator is the fundamental tone of a series of harmonics (1825);^[4] it has senses in geometry from 1863 and in algebra from 1894,^[4] and in computing a routine that builds programs from given parameters is from 1953.^[4]

Timeline

• 1646 – one who begets.^[4]
• 1794 – a power-producing apparatus.^[2][4]
• 1825 – the fundamental tone (music).^[4]
• 1879 – an electric generator.^[2]
• 1953 – a program generator.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A machine that converts mechanical energy into electricity.
2. An apparatus for producing a gas or vapour.
3. A circuit that produces a particular waveform.
4. (computing) A program that produces other programs.
5. A person or thing that generates something.

Word family

• turbogenerator
• character generator
• Van de Graaff generator
• wind generator

Related words

• generate
• generation
• genus
• gender

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press