resonator

Etymology

It is formed from English resonate + -or,^[2][3][4][5] an agent noun in Latin form;^[6] Klein takes it as New Latin resonātor, from resonātus, the past participle of resonō (“to resound”).^[7] That Latin verb is formed from re- and sonō (“to sound”).^[2] According to the OED, the first sense follows German Resonator, used in this sense in 1862 in the German passage translated in the first English quotation, and the sense "instrument tuned to one note" follows French résonateur (1863) or its German model, found in a paper by Helmholtz of 1859 or earlier.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A structure or device that strengthens sounds by resonance: 1864, in an English translation of a German work by von Tröltsch.^[2] Merriam-Webster also gives 1864,^[3] while Etymonline dates the word to 1869, as an instrument or chamber made to respond to a single tone.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The word came into English with 19th-century acoustics: an instrument that responds to a single note through resonance in a cavity, used to detect that note among others, is recorded from 1865.^[2][4] From 1883, in a paper by A. G. Bell, it was a device showing electrical resonance, used later in detecting radio waves.^[2][4] From 1888 the mouth, nose and throat, which shape the volume and timbre of the voice, were called resonators.^[2] The general sense, any object or system that resonates, follows in 1897.^[2][6] In the 20th century the word was applied to the cavity resonator, a hollow conductor in which microwaves oscillate (1936).^[2][4] The spun metal cones of the resonator guitar, developed from the 1920s, are also called resonators, and the guitar is so named by 1943.^[6]

Timeline

• 1864 – a device or structure that strengthens sounds by resonance, especially part of a musical instrument.^[2][3]
• 1865 – an instrument that responds to a single note by resonance in a cavity, used to detect it.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to 1869.^[6]
• 1883 – a device showing electrical resonance, especially one used to detect radio waves.^[2]
• 1888 – in the plural, the mouth, nose and throat as shapers of the voice.^[2]
• 1897 – any object or system that resonates.^[2][6]
• 1936 – a cavity resonator, a hollow conductor holding electromagnetic oscillations.^[2][4]
• 1943 – the resonator guitar, which produces its sound through spun metal cones.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Something that resonates; any object or system that shows resonance.^[3][8][9][2]
2. A hollow chamber or part of a musical instrument that strengthens its sound, such as the body of a stringed instrument: The drum's metal resonator gave it a bright ring.^[4][2][10]
3. An acoustic device that responds to one frequency and is used to pick it out from other sounds.^[3][4][2]
4. An electric circuit with inductance and capacitance arranged to resonate at a particular frequency.^[3][8][9]
5. A hollow cavity with conducting walls in which microwaves of particular frequencies oscillate; a cavity resonator.^[8][9][4]

Word family

• cavity resonator

Related words

• resonate
• resonance
• resound
• sonant

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster