effector

plural effectors · alternative effecter · alternative obsolete effectour

1. One who or that which brings about an event or result, accomplishes a purpose, etc.

   Yea; and I devised Numbers—high art!—and letters’ composition, / And memory, effector of all things, / And mother of the Muses: […]

   1833, Æschylus, translated by [Elizabeth Barrett Browning], “Prometheus Bound”, in Prometheus Bound. […] And Miscellaneous Poems, […], London: […] A[braham] J[ohn] Valpy, […], →OCLC, page 29

   2 more examples

   This Sanctification, and Bleſſing the Seventh Day, was ſetting it apart as a Day of Diſtinction from the Reſt of the Week-Days, and appropriating it to Holy Uſes and Purpoſes, namely, the Commemoration of that great Work of the Creation, and paying Homage and Worſhip to that infinite Being, who was the Effector of it.

   1713, W[illiam] Derham, “[A Survey of the Particular Tribes of Animals.] That We Ought to Pay God All Due Homage and Worship, Particularly That of the Lord’s-Day.”, in Physico-Theology: Or, A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God, from His Works of Creation. […], London: […] W[illiam] Innys, […], →OCLC, book XI (Practical Inferences from the Foregoing Survey), pages 474–475

   The Sanctifier and bright Lord who is glorious in operation, the dispositioner, the effector of all trans-substantiations, who sets the traverse wall according to the measure of the angel with the reed, who knows best how to gather his epiklesis from that open plain, who transmutes their cheerless blasphemy into a lover’s word, who spoke by Balaam and by Balaam’s ass, who spoke also by Sgt. Bullcock.

   1974, David Jones, “from The Book of Balaam’s Ass”, in The Sleeping Lord and Other Fragments, London: Faber and Faber, →ISBN, page 107

2. biologyAny muscle, organ etc. that can respond to a stimulus from a nerve.
3. biologyThe part of a nerve that carries a stimulus to a muscle etc.
4. biologyAny small molecule that effects the function of an enzyme by binding to an allosteric site.
5. An actuator.