interpreter

From Middle English interpreter, interpretour, from Latin interpretor (“to explain, expound, understand”), from interpres (“agent, translator”).

Displaced native Old English wealhstod.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈtɜːpɹɪtə/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈtɝpɹɪtɚ/
• Hyphenation: in‧ter‧pret‧er

interpreter (plural interpreters)

1. A person who interprets.

   an interpreter of dreams

   one of the foremost interpreters [i.e. performers] of Beethoven's piano works

   • 1529, Thomas More, Dialogue of Diverse Matters‎, London: J. Rastell, Book 4, Chapter 6:

     the holy fathers interpretours of holy scrypture

   • 1876, George Eliot, Daniel Deronda‎, Leipzig: B. Tauchnitz, Volume 2, Book 4, Chapter 30, p. 205:

     A severe interpreter might say that the mere facts of their relation to each other, the melancholy position of this woman who depended on his will, made a standing banquet for his delight in dominating.

   • 1903, W.E.B. Du Bois, chapter 10, in The Souls of Black Folk‎, Chicago: McClurg, page 196:

     […] the Priest or Medicine-man […] early appeared on the plantation and found his function as the healer of the sick, the interpreter of the Unknown […] and the one who rudely but picturesquely expressed the longing, disappointment, and resentment of a stolen and oppressed people.

   1. A person who converts spoken or signed language into a different language for the benefit of one or more others who do not understand the first language being used (especially if in real time or shortly after that person has finished communicating). (Contrasted with translator.)

      A Japanese man who is tried before a German court is assisted by an interpreter in making oral statements.

      • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well‎, Act IV, Scene 1:

        When you sally upon him, speak what terrible language you will: though you understand it not yourselves, no matter; for we must not seem to understand him, unless some one among us whom we must produce for an interpreter.

      • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author Leaves Luggnagg, and Sails to Japan. From thence He Returns in a Dutch Ship to Amsterdam, and from Amsterdam to England.”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part III (A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Glubbdubdribb, Luggnagg, and Japan), page 137:

        I had many Acquaintance among Persons of the best Fashion, and being always attended by my Interpreter, the Conversation we had was not disagreeable.

      • 1880, Mark Twain, chapter 14, in A Tramp Abroad‎, volume 1, London: Chatto & Windus, page 115:

        I can understand German as well as the maniac that invented it, but I talk it best through an interpreter.

      • 1991, Jerome Daniel Schein, Enid G. Wolf-Schein, University of Alberta. Western Canadian Centre for Studies in Deafness, Postsecondary Education for Deaf Students:

        Once in the classroom the interpreter might inform the deaf person of various auditory information occurring in the environment such as: The teacher has a strong accent. Your hearing aid is making a noise. The fire alarm has gone off!

      • 2019, Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Penguin Random House, Part 1:

        So began my career as our family’s official interpreter. From then on, I would fill in our blanks, our silences, stutters, whenever I could. I code switched. I took off our language and wore my English, like a mask, so that others would see my face, and therefore yours.

   2. A guide who helps people visiting an attraction such as an art exhibit, a nature reserve, etc., understand what they are seeing.

      At the historic site there are costumed interpreters demonstrating ancient crafts.

2. (figuratively) Something that reveals or clarifies.
   • 1823, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Forget Me Not 1824, The Indian Orphan, page 67:

     Flowers are the interpreters of love in India, painting in the most vivid but in the softest colours speaking in the sweetest sighs: while each blossom that fades is a mournful remembrancer either of blighted hopes or departed pleasures.

   • c. 1610, William Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale‎, Act V, Scene 1:

     […] these thy offices, / So rarely kind, are as interpreters / Of my behind-hand slackness.

   • 1910, Emma Goldman, “The Modern Drama”, in Anarchism and Other Essays‎, New York: Mother Earth Publishing Association, page 247:

     the modern drama—the strongest and most far-reaching interpreter of our deep-felt dissatisfaction

3. (computing) A program that executes another program written in a high-level language by reading the instructions in real time rather than by compiling it in advance.

   Programs written in the BASIC language are usually run through an interpreter, though some can be compiled.

In the localization industry, an interpreter deals specifically with speech or signing as the input, while a translator deals with text as the input.

• decoder, elucidator, explainer, explicator, expounder
• (translation studies): dragoman, dubash, latimer, linguister, truchman (archaic)
• (guide): cicerone, docent, tour guide
• (computing): terp (slang)

• (computing): computer program

• (translation studies): court interpreter, simultaneous interpreter
• (computing): parts interpreter, command-line interpreter
• (guide): first-person interpreter, science interpreter, museum interpreter, parks interpreter, historical interpreter

• (in computing): compiler

• interpreter on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• reinterpret

interpreter

1. first-person singular present active subjunctive of interpretor

interpreter

1. to interpret; to find meaning in something

• Middle French conjugation varies from one text to another. Hence, the following conjugation should be considered as typical, not as exhaustive.

• French: interpréter

Borrowed from English interpreter.

• IPA^(key): /in.tɛrˈprɛ.tɛr/
• Rhymes: -ɛtɛr
• Syllabification: in‧ter‧pre‧ter

interpreter m inan

1. (computing) interpreter

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

Borrowed from English interpreter.

• IPA^(key): /intěrpreter/
• Hyphenation: in‧ter‧pre‧ter

intèrpreter m (Cyrillic spelling интѐрпретер)

1. interpreter

• (person): tùmāč, interprètant, interprètātor, intèrprēt
• (computer program): interprètātor