simulator

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin simulātor (“a copier, imitator, feigner”),^[2][3][4] the agent noun of simulō (“to make like, imitate, copy, represent”),^[2][3] from the stem of similis (“like, resembling”).^[3][2] Merriam-Webster forms it from the past participle simulātus and the suffix -or,^[5] and the Shorter Oxford takes it as an English formation from simulate.^[6] The OED compares French simulateur, Spanish simulador, Portuguese simulador and Italian simulatore.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who simulates or feigns something, such as illness or holiness: 1835, in Fraser's Magazine.^[2][3][5]

Semantic evolution

From 1899 the word was used of a thing that imitates another.^[2] In 1947 it gained its main modern sense, an apparatus that reproduces the behaviour of a more complex system, especially for training, as in a flight simulator.^[2][3] In computing, from 1960, a simulator is a program that lets one computer run programs written for a different one.^[2][6]

Timeline

• 1835 – a person who simulates or feigns.^[2][3]
• 1899 – a thing that simulates another.^[2]
• 1947 – an apparatus that simulates a more complex system, for training.^[2][3]
• 1960 – computing, a program that runs another computer's programs.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A machine or system that reproduces the conditions of a real process, vehicle or aircraft, for training or research: The trainee crashed the plane twice in the simulator.^[7][5][2]
2. (computing) A program that lets a computer run programs written for a different computer.^[2][6]
3. A person who simulates or feigns something.^[7][2][5]

Related words

• simulation
• simulate
• similar

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins