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.

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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

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