Etymology

terminator

ter·mi·na·tor
T1E1R1M3I1N1A1T1O1R1

Today it means: Someone who terminates or ends something, especially (in later use) an assassin or exterminator. Full definition →

First used 17th c.Latin terminator
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Latin · derived fromterminō
  2. Latin · derived fromterminator
  3. English todayterminator

* Partly from post-classical Latin terminator (5th century), from Latin terminō; partly from terminate + -or. * (android that kills humans): After the 1984 film The Terminator.

First known use, by meaning

  • from 17th c. Someone who terminates or ends something, especially (in later use) an assassin or exterminator.
  • from 17th c. The line between the day side and the night side of a moon, planet or other celestial body.
  • from 20th c. A DNA sequence that causes RNA transcription to cease and an mRNA transcript to break off.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.