Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One who edits, especially as an occupation.
  • noun One who writes editorials.
  • noun A device for editing film, consisting basically of a splicer and viewer.
  • noun Computers A program used to edit text or data files.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who edits; one who prepares, or superintends the preparation of, a book, journal, etc., for publication. Abbreviated ed.
  • noun An exhibitor: in the phrase editor of the games (translating the Latin editor ludorum), an officer who superintended the Roman public games.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One who edits; esp., a person who prepares, superintends, revises, and corrects a book, magazine, or newspaper, etc., for publication.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A person who edits or makes changes to documents.
  • noun A copy editor.
  • noun A person who edited a specific document.
  • noun A person at a newspaper or similar institution who edits stories and decides which ones to publish.
  • noun A machine used for editing (cutting and splicing) movie film
  • noun computer software A program for creating and making changes to files, especially text files.
  • noun television, cinematography Someone who manipulates video footage and assembles it into the correct order etc for broadcast; a picture editor.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (computer science) a program designed to perform such editorial functions as rearrangement or modification or deletion of data
  • noun a person responsible for the editorial aspects of publication; the person who determines the final content of a text (especially of a newspaper or magazine)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Late Latin ēditor, publisher, from Latin ēditus, past participle of ēdere, to publish; see edit.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin editionem (nominative editio) ‘a bringing forth, producing’, from perfect passive participle editus, from stem of verb edere, ‘bring forth, produce’, from ex-, ‘out’ + -dere, combining form of dare, ‘to give’; + noun of agent suffix -or.

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Examples

Comments

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  • “Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers.�?

    – T. S. Eliot (1888-1965)

    August 28, 2007

  • In the past, english used to distinguish gender with masculine and feminine endings. Aviator/aviatrix and others. Is there an editrix? The answer is yes and a good thing has been lost in the dumbing down of gender. Women are not honorary men.

    July 22, 2011

  • editrix is one of my favourite words but I wouldn't call its falling into disuse a "dumbing down of gender". In fact I think I prefer the gender-neutral occupations. It's certainly less hassle than e.g. Spanish where you're always having to add an 'a' if the person happens to be female.

    July 22, 2011

  • I'm going to start adding 'trix' to the end of random words to see how long it takes mr dontcry to figure it out. And here I thought another weekend on the sofa with leg propped up was going to be a drag. If I only had some marmite...

    *snort*

    July 22, 2011

  • There are not many English words where the feminine forms in -trix are still in use. I have seen executrix for the female executor of a will, but the most famous -trix is, of course, dominatrix, and I expect that this word would influence the connotations of any other -trix word that one might try to revive or introduce. Thus, one feels that a woman who insists on being known as an editrix is not merely an editor without a Y chromosome, but is a really demanding editor as well. Curiously, the English cognate of this suffix, -ess has almost exactly opposite connotations, suggesting the sentimental, romantic, or temperamental side of things, as in the words poetess and authoress – which is why very early in the feminist movement women writers tended to reject such terms for themselves. Who today would dare to refer to Virginia Woolf as an authoress or Sylvia Plath as a poetess? Would anyone have called Margaret Thatcher a prime ministress? Such words were thought to be demeaning not because they referred to women but because they were associated with notions of dilletantism and weakness, in the sense of not being able to deal with the serious matters of politics and commerce.

    July 23, 2011

  • I offered up "graphic designtrix" last night. No bites...

    July 23, 2011

  • I've seen aviatrix. In living memory :-/

    July 23, 2011

  • Wordtrix? Wordniktrix?

    July 23, 2011

  • Dontcry, I think the feminine form of "graphic designer" would be "graphic designress": the -ress suffix generally corresponds to the -er suffix, while -trix goes with -tor (though there are exceptions, for example actor/actress).

    Bilby, you're right about aviatrix, which often appears in combination with the phrase Amelia Earhart.

    Ruzuzu, with regard to a possible feminine form for "Wordnik", I would point out that the -nik suffix is of Slavic origin (in some cases coming into Am.English via Yiddish), and in the Slavic languages the feminine counterpart to -nik words is, as a rule, -nitsa (in the past sometimes transliterated as -nitza, and today, in the so-called scientific transliteration, as -nica), as in the Russian words любовник, любовница / lyubovnik, lyubovnitsa (male and female "lover", respectively). That would give us Wordnitsa, or if you prefer Wordnitza.

    July 23, 2011

  • I'm sure your right, rol. I'm stickin' with graphic designtrix just the same! I'm dangerous today.

    July 23, 2011

  • Dontcry, you do what's right for you. And I'm sure that whatever you do, it's fierce.

    July 23, 2011

  • Bad luck dc. Youcantteachanolddognewtrix.

    July 23, 2011

  • When I look at Wordnitsa, I want to read it as Wordnista.

    July 23, 2011

  • Wordnista vs wordtrix.

    *drums fingertips on desk*

    Decisions, decisions...

    July 24, 2011

  • Wow, rolig, it's true. Wordtrix makes me picture a woman in vinyl with a whip and a dictionary.

    July 24, 2011

  • That should be the Wordnik logo.

    July 25, 2011

  • It's not already?

    July 25, 2011