interpreter

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a person who translates spoken words from one language into another.

   The interpreter helped the tourists talk to the local doctor.

2. 2
   noun

   in computing, a program that translates and runs code one line at a time.

   Python uses an interpreter to run your code line by line.

From Middle English interpreter, interpretour, etc., from Old French interpreteur, interpreteeur, etc., from Late Latin interpretātōr, from classical Latin interpretātus (“explained, translated”) + -or (“-er: forming agent nouns”), from interpretārī (“to explain, to translate”), from interpres (“go-between, translator”) + -ārī (“to be ~ed”), q.v. In reference to divine emissaries, a calque of Mercury's Latin epithet interpres divum (“go-between of the gods”). In reference to the rhetorical device, a calque of Latin interpretatio. Equivalent to interpret + -er. Displaced native Old English weal…

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