-ator
Origin of -ator
1<Latin -ātor, originally not a suffix, but the termination of nouns formed with -tor-tor from verbs whose stems ended in -ā-; in English, Latin loanwords ending in -ātor have been reanalyzed as derivatives of the past participles in -tus (see -ate1) and a suffix -or (see -or2), and many new English nouns derived from English verbs based on Latin past participles (e.g., vibrator from vibrate)
Words Nearby -ator
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
British Dictionary definitions for -ator
-ator
suffix forming nouns
a person or thing that performs a certain action: agitator; escalator; radiator
Origin of -ator
1from Latin -ātor; see -ate 1 -or 1
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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