transistor

Etymology

It is most often explained as a blend, from English transfer + resistor,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} because the device transfers an electrical signal across a resistor.^[2][5][6][8] The OED also allows a second explanation, from the trans- of transconductance and the combining form -istor, after the earlier varistor,^[2] and the Oxford Dictionary of English gives only that one.^[9] Etymonline says the name is said to have been coined by the American engineer John Robinson Pierce at Bell Telephone Laboratories, where the device was invented in 1947,^[8] and Klein calls it a trade name coined by Bell Laboratories in 1948.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small semiconductor device used as a switch or amplifier: 1948, in the New York Times.^[2][6][8]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline notes that the transistor took over many of the functions of the vacuum tube.^[8] The verb transistorize, to equip with transistors, followed in 1953.^[6] Barnhart records the transistor radio from 1955 and Etymonline from 1958;^[6][8] from 1961 transistor alone was short for such a radio.^[2][6]

Timeline

• 1948 – a semiconductor device acting as an amplifier or switch.^[2][6][8]
• 1953 – the verb transistorize.^[6]
• 1955 – transistor radio.^[6] Etymonline finds it by 1958.^[8]
• 1961 – a transistor radio.^[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A semiconductor device, usually with three terminals, that controls the flow of current between two of them by a small current or voltage at the third, and is used to amplify or switch signals.^[11][2][5]
2. (informal) A transistor radio.^[11][2]

Word family

• phototransistor
• transistorize
• transistorized
• transistor radio

Related words

• transfer
• resistor
• varistor

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins