Activators

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Agents or substances that cause a process or reaction to start or intensify
2. Materials or factors that stimulate or speed up a biological or chemical effect
3. Elements that promote or trigger increased activity in various systems or reactions

Etymology: "Activator" is built from "activate" plus the English agent suffix "-or", so the interesting history lies in the stem. The root is Latin "agere", "to drive, do, act", which reached English through a chain of Latin adjectives. The Latin "activus" (from "actus", the past participle of "agere") passed into Old French as "actif", and Middle English borrowed it as "actyf" before it settled into modern "active". The Greek "energētikos" sits behind the Latin, which shows how closely the idea of working or operating was tied to energy from the start. "Activate" was formed in English by adding the verb-forming suffix "-ate", taken from Latin "-ātus", to "active". The English agent suffix "-or", which comes through Old French from Latin "-tor", then turned that verb into a noun for whatever carries out the action. An activator is therefore literally a thing that makes something act, a chemical or catalyst that sets a reaction moving rather than a person who does the work.

Synonyms: catalysts, stimulators, initiators, promoters, accelerators

Antonyms: inhibitors, suppressors, deterrents, impediments, obstacles