Commentators

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Individuals who narrate and explain events as they occur, particularly in sports or live broadcasts ; persons who offer explanations or interpretations of documents, laws, or subjects through writing or speaking
2. People providing live verbal descriptions and analyses during various events, mainly athletic competitions ; those who analyze and clarify written material or complex subjects for an audience
3. Those who deliver spoken commentary to inform and engage listeners during events ; figures who elucidate and interpret information or texts to aid understanding

Etymology: The most surprising thing about this word is how far its Latin ancestor strayed from the modern sense. Latin "commentator" could mean an author, an inventor, an interpreter, or even a jailer. Its root, "comminisci", meant "to think over" or "to invent", so the earliest sense carried the idea of devising something, not explaining it. The verb "commentari" later came to mean "to ponder, study, or write upon" a text, and that is where the sense of interpretation took hold. The English word arrived in Middle English from Latin, and its meaning was shaped along the way by the nearby words "comment" and "commentary", which pulled it toward the sense of writing explanations on a text. That explains why the modern noun covers both kinds of work: the scholar annotating an ancient manuscript and the broadcaster describing a football match are both working in the tradition of giving meaning to something others have produced.

Synonyms: analysts, critics, interpreters, reporters, pundits

Antonyms: audience, listeners, observers, viewers, spectators