English
interpreter
Etymology

From Middle English interpreter, interpretour, from Latin interpretor, from interpres ("agent, translator").

Displaced native Old English wealhstod.

Pronunciation
  • (RP) IPA: /ɪnˈtɜːpɹɪtə/
  • (America) IPA: /ɪnˈtɝpɹɪtɚ/
Noun

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
    • 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.
    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 27, [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.
    • 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.
  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.
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