Etymologically
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terminator

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 1 November 2026 at 00:22. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈtɜː.mɪ.neɪ.tə/[1]
  • US: /ˈtɝ.mɪˌneɪ.tɚ/[1]

Etymology

It is partly borrowed from Late Latin terminātor (“one who sets bounds”), and partly formed from English terminate + -or.[2][3] In post-classical Latin the noun meant a person who fixes boundaries (in Augustine, of a god), and later the horizon and the line between the lit and dark parts of the moon or a planet.[2] It is an agent noun from terminō (“to mark the end or boundary”), from terminus (“end, limit”).[4][2][5] The OED compares French terminateur, used in astronomy from 1546 in Middle French,[2] and Etymonline notes the earlier Middle English terminour (“inflectional ending of a word”) (about 1400), from a variant of Old French termineor.[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person or thing that ends something: 1652, in J. Lane's Persecution Detected.[2] The astronomical sense followed in 1661, in T. Salusbury's translation of Galileo.[2]

Semantic evolution

The OED's earliest sense is the general one, someone or something that brings a thing to an end;[2] the Shorter Oxford and Etymonline, which take the astronomical sense as the first, date the general use only to the mid 19th century (Etymonline, 1844).[3][4] In astronomy the word names the line dividing the lit and unlit parts of the disc of the moon or a planet, borrowed from the post-classical Latin of Galileo's day;[2][3] Etymonline dates it to 1734[4] and Merriam-Webster to 1770.[7] In later use the general sense was applied especially to an exterminator or a professional killer.[2] Since 1965 molecular biology has used it for a sequence of nucleotides that signals the end of transcription or translation.[2][3][8]

Timeline

  • 1652 – a person or thing that ends something.[2]
  • 1661 – in astronomy, the line between the lit and dark parts of the moon or a planet.[2] Etymonline dates this sense to 1734.[4]
  • 1965 – in molecular biology, a sequence of nucleotides that signals the end of transcription or translation.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A person or thing that terminates something: She was the terminator of several costly projects.[7][8][9]
  2. In astronomy, the dividing line between the lit and the dark part of the disc of the moon or a planet.[7][8][10][2]
  3. In genetics and molecular biology, a codon or longer sequence of nucleotides that signals the end of transcription or translation.[7][8][3][2]
  4. An exterminator; a professional assassin.[2]

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  6. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  9. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers
  10. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins