Borrowed from Latin operātor, from operor (“work, labour”). Equivalent to operate +‎ -or.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɒpəˌɹeɪtə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɑpəˌɹeɪtɚ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: op‧er‧ator

operator (countable and uncountable, plural operators)

1. A person or organisation that operates a device, system, service, etc.

   The drone crashed because of operator error.

   The new bus operator has promised to improve the frequency of rural services.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     The stories did not seem to me to touch life. […] They left me with the impression of a well-delivered stereopticon lecture, with characters about as life-like as the shadows on the screen, and whisking on and off, at the mercy of the operator.

2. A telecommunications facilitator whose job is to connect or otherwise assist callers.

   To get an international line, you used to have to go through the operator.

   I kept getting "number unobtainable", so I called the operator to find out what was going on.

3. A member of a military special operations unit.
4. (uncountable) The game of Chinese whispers.
6. (informal) A person who is adept at making deals or getting results, especially one who uses questionable methods.
   • 1990, House of Cards, season 1, episode 1:

     Francis Urquhart: I think Lord Billsborough is starting to lose touch a bit.
     Tim Stamper: Shame. Used to be a hell of an operator in his day.

7. (mathematics) A function or other mapping that carries values defined on a domain into another value or set of values in a defined range.
9. (computing) The administrator of a channel or network on IRC.
11. (computing) A symbol that represents a construct in a programming language and differs from a normal function in its syntax.
13. (linguistics) A kind of expression that enters into an a-bar movement dependency and is said to bind a variable.

    In the sentence "What did Bill say he wants to buy?", "what" is an operator, binding a phonetically empty variable.

15. (transport) A bus driver.
17. (by ellipsis, mining) The company that operates a mine; often the same one that owns the mine.

    Coordinate terms: mineowner (often coinstantial); (in contrast) mineworkers, miners, workers, laborers, labor union, trade union; regulator

18. (Should we delete⁽⁺⁾ this sense?)(slang) A thief or charlatan.
    • 1709 January 11, Colley Cibber, “The Rival Fools: […]”, in Mr. Cibber's Plays, volume II, London: […] B. Lintot […], published 1721, page 104:

      Sir Ol. Sirrah! I got many a round Sum by it, when my Father wou'd not give me a Groat—Then, Sir, I was in with all the Top Gameſters, and when there was a fat Squire to be fleec'd; I had my Office among them too, and tho' I ſay it, was one of the neateſt Operators about Town.

    • 2016, C. T. Collier, Planted, Scottsdale, A.Z.: Asdee Press, →ISBN, page 301:

      Hank was saying, "Lyssa showed me the screenshots of Nate's accounts, so we know he's helping himself to Nate's money every month. The guy's a real operator."

19. (Should we delete⁽⁺⁾ this sense?)(slang) A major criminal.
    • 1998, Irvine Welsh, Filth, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 140:

      He started bleating to me this morning aboot being stretched on this hippy stalk. A fuckin waste of time. Big operators flooding the city with smack and three-quarters of the cunts we bang up are daft schemies or students with a wee bit of hash or a few pills for their pals.

    • 2000 May 14, John Sweeney, “Cocky”, in The Observer‎^[1], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 6 April 2023:

      The second thing is that smart operators like Cocky are only in it for the (huge amounts of) money.

20. (Should we delete⁽⁺⁾ this sense?)(slang, dated) Someone who is successful at pursuing women; a player.
    • 1974, Earl Wilson, Show Business Laid Bare, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam's Sons, →ISBN, page 188:

      I give credit to men who are great operators, as we once called them, with the girls. Once I was interviewing one of the most beautiful girls in the world in her suite at the Hotel Plaza. While she was busily denying to me that there was anything serious in her relationship with Warren Beatty, who should be barging into the next room of the suite with a lot of clothes being removed from another suite, but Warren Beatty?

    • 1988 [1977], Luciano De Crescenzo, translated by Avril Bardoni, Thus Spake Bellavista: Naples, Love, and Liberty, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, →ISBN, page 101:

      "Of course you're right, but the Baron is unfortunately a bit of an operator, if you know what I mean. He likes the ladies," said Salvatore with a wicked grin. "So he never gets in until two, sometimes even three in the morning, and that's because he goes dancing at the Mela; he's quite a playboy."

    • 1996, George P. Pelecanos, The Big Blowdown, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin's Press, →ISBN, page 298:

      Anyway, there's gonna be plenty of girls. Plenty of girls for an operator like you.

• “operator n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present

• operator on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• aeroport, aëroport, poor rate

Indonesian Wikipedia has an article on:

operator

Wikipedia ^id

Learned borrowing from Latin operātor.

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /opəˈrator/ [o.pəˈra.t̪ɔr]
• Rhymes: -ator
• Syllabification: o‧pe‧ra‧tor

operator (plural operator-operator)

1. operator

• “operator”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

operor +‎ -tor.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ɔ.pɛˈraː.tɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [o.peˈraː.t̪or]

operātor m (genitive operātōris); third declension

1. worker, operator

Third-declension noun.

operātor

1. second/third-person singular future active imperative of operor

• “operator”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• "operator", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “operator”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.F

• Ultimately from Latin operātor (“worker”), probably through English operator.

• IPA^(key): /oːpɛɾɑːˈtoːɾ/

operator ?

1. surgeon

This entry needs quotations to illustrate usage. If you come across any interesting, durably archived quotes, then please add them!

Polish Wikipedia has an article on:

operator

Wikipedia ^pl

Borrowed from French opérateur, from Latin operātor.

• IPA^(key): /ɔ.pɛˈra.tɔr/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -atɔr
• Syllabification: o‧pe‧ra‧tor

operator m pers (female equivalent operatorka)

1. machinist, operator
2. (medicine) surgeon

   Synonym: chirurg

3. (cinematography) cameraman, cinematographer
4. (telecommunications) operator (company providing operator services)

operator m inan

1. (mathematics) operator
2. (linguistics) operator

• operator in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• operator in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Borrowed from French opérateur or Latin operator. Equivalent to opera +‎ -tor.

operator m or n (feminine singular operatoare, masculine plural operatori, feminine and neuter plural operatoare)

1. operating

operator m (plural operatori)

1. worker, operator

• IPA^(key): /opěraːtor/
• Hyphenation: o‧pe‧ra‧tor

opèrātor m inan (Cyrillic spelling опѐра̄тор)

1. (mathematics) operator

operator c

1. (mathematics, computing) an operator