projector

plural projectors · alternative projectour

1. Someone who devises or suggests a project; a proposer or planner of something.First known use 16th c.

   [A]s the Doctor neither did this, nor yet sent him an answer, the projector wrote a second letter […].

   1791, Thomas Paine, Rights of Man

   2 more examples

   So far is it from the kenne of theſe wretched projectors of ours that beſcraull their Pamflets every day with new formes of government for our Church.

   1642 (indicated as 1641), John Milton, “That Church-governement is Prescrib’d in the Gospell, and that to Say Otherwise is Unsound”, in The Reason of Church-governement Urg’d against Prelaty […], London: […] E[dward] G[riffin] for Iohn Rothwell, […], →OCLC, 1st book, page 4

   […] either the work of the winter storms, or perhaps the victims of some extensive but desultory scheme of denudation, which the projector had not capital or perseverance to carry into full effect.

   1838, J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess

2. An optical device that projects a beam of light, especially one used to project an image (or moving images) onto a screen.First known use 19th c.
3. That which projects or launches something.

   a depth charge projector

4. human sciencesOne who projects, or ascribes his/her own feelings to others.

   Projectors attempt to get rid of unwanted feelings, only it does not work; they still experience the unwanted feelings […]

   1982, The Gestalt Journal, volume 5, page 44

5. mathematicsAn operator that forms a projection.