Abator

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /əˈbeɪt.ə/

Definitions

1. One who abates or diminishes something, especially a nuisance or a legal obligation
2. an individual who removes something undesirable or lessens its severity
3. a person tasked with reducing distractions or mitigating issues affecting an environment or situation

Etymology: An abator was, in medieval English law, a person who moved into a property without any legal right the moment its owner died, slipping in ahead of the rightful heir. The word comes from the verb "abate", which in Anglo-Norman French could mean to enter land unlawfully in this way, and the Latin-derived "-or" ending marks the person doing the action. Legal writers used the term for this kind of wrongful occupation, a practice the law treated as a grievance against the heir. The same verb had a second, older life in Middle English, where "abate" meant to beat down, overthrow or do away with something. In that sense an abator was simply one who reduces or removes, and it is this broader meaning that the modern noun carries. Both senses grew from the same French root, one narrowly legal and one general, and the general sense is the one a reader is most likely to meet today.

Synonyms: reducer, diminisher, lessener, moderator, mitigator