Accessor

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A component or individual that serves to enhance or support a primary system or object by providing additional features or functionality
2. An element or unit that adds extra functionality to a main device or system
3. A supplementary object or person that assists and augments the operation of a primary entity

Etymology: "Accessor" is built in English from "access" plus the suffix "-or", a form that English took over from Latin "-tor" and its variants. The suffix passed into English by way of Old French and Middle English spellings such as "-our", and it marks someone or something that performs an action. An accessor is therefore, at root, a thing that gets at or reaches something else. The modern sense of the word is most at home in computing and programming, where an accessor is a method that reads or changes the value of a private piece of data. Lowercase, the word is used broadly for anything that gives access to something, though the technical use is the one most readers will meet.

Synonyms: provider, supplier