preparator

[pri-par-uh-ter, -pair-]

noun

1. a person who prepares a specimen, as an animal, for scientific examination or exhibition.

Word History and Origins

Origin of preparator¹

1755–65; < Late Latin praeparātor preparer, equivalent to praeparā ( re ) to prepare + -tor -tor

Example Sentences

“A very fine product,” says senior art preparator Michael Price with a sly smile.

From Los Angeles Times

Stefan Selzer an author on the project who prepared the specimen said: “As a preparator I have worked on more than 60 pterosaur specimens from Solnhofen limestone. I recognized during the final prep this specimen showed features that combined characteristics of both major groups of pterosaurs, with the shortened tail as the most important diagnostic feature.”

From Science Daily

Viola snagged a part-time job there as a technician and exhibition preparator, and he would have his first exhibition at the Everson in 1973.

From Los Angeles Times

A work by Manuel Rodríguez-Delgado involving a climate-sealed notebook and custom shipping crates glances off the unwieldy category of preparator work, and the wall label for Sol LeWitt’s “Wall Drawing #48,” per his instructions, names the people who drew it.

From New York Times

Beneath it, Blasto Onyango, head preparator of the National Museums of Kenya, found a huge hominin molar.

From Science Magazine