injector

Etymology

It is formed from English inject + -or,^[2][3][4] an agent noun from the verb.^[4] The OED takes it as an agent noun formed on Latin injicere (“to throw in or on”),^[5] and Klein derives it from the past participle injectus with the suffix -or.^[6] Inject is from iniciō, formed from in- (“in”) and iaciō (“to throw”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A device for injecting, especially one that forces water into the boiler of a steam engine: 1744, in a paper by C. Warrick in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.^[5] Etymonline dates the word to 1727,^[4] and Dictionary.com to 1735–45.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word was first used of devices, and its main uses remain mechanical: a jet pump feeding water into a steam boiler, and later a device that sprays fuel into the combustion chamber of an engine (more fully fuel injector).^[5][7][2][8] A person who injects is recorded from 1897, in a medical textbook.^[5] From 1945 physicists used it for something that injects particles into an accelerator or charge carriers into a semiconductor.^[5]

Timeline

• 1744 – a device for injecting, especially water into a steam boiler.^[5] Etymonline dates the word to 1727.^[4]
• 1897 – a person who injects.^[5]
• 1945 – something that injects particles into an accelerator or charge carriers into a semiconductor.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A device that sprays fuel into the combustion chamber of an internal-combustion engine.^[8][7][2]
2. A jet pump that forces water into a steam boiler.^[8][7][5]
3. A person or thing that injects.^[8][7][5]

Word family

• fuel injector

Related words

• inject
• injection

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins