generator
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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
- A machine that converts mechanical energy into electricity.
- An apparatus for producing a gas or vapour.
- A circuit that produces a particular waveform.
- (computing) A program that produces other programs.
- A person or thing that generates something.
Word family
- turbogenerator
- character generator
- Van de Graaff generator
- wind generator
Related words
References
- ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
- ^ 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