Compiler

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /kəmˈpaɪlə/

Definitions

1. A computer program that translates source code written in a high-level programming language into machine code or intermediate code that a processor can execute
2. A software application that transforms high-level programming instructions into a machine code format suitable for execution by a computer processor
3. A program that converts instructions written in a programming language into code that a device's processor can directly use

Etymology: The sense "a program that translates source code into machine code" is a modern extension of an older word, and the original meaning is far more literal. Its ancestor is Latin "compilare", meaning to plunder or pillage, or to pile up by stealing from others. A compiler in the earliest English sense was someone who gathered and assembled material from other writers, borrowing freely without much acknowledgement, which is why the word once carried a faint suggestion of plagiarism. The word reached English in Middle English as "compilour", borrowed through Anglo-Norman and Old French from Latin "compilator", a plunderer or pilferer. The Latin root gave English "compile" as well, so the agent noun and its verb share a single history. Over time the sense shifted from thief to editor: a person who collected and arranged existing texts into a new book. The computing meaning grew out of that editing sense. A program that gathers many separate source files and assembles them into a single executable is, in a loose way, doing what the old compilers did with manuscripts.

Synonyms: assembler, creator