Compilers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Software systems that translate high-level programming languages into low-level machine code for execution by a computer
2. Programs designed to convert source code written by developers into machine-readable files, thus allowing applications to run
3. Programs that transform written programming instructions into a form a computer's processor can run

Etymology: The original sense was theft. Latin "compilare" meant to plunder or pillage, and "compilator" was a plunderer, someone who gathered up other people's material and passed it off as their own. Over time the sense softened from stealing goods to gathering texts, and a compiler became someone who assembled a book from existing writings. The word came into English through Old French "compileur" and Anglo-Norman "compilour", and appeared in Middle English as "compilour". Today "compiler" is "compile" with the agent suffix "-er", and the plural "compilers" simply adds "-s" to it. The computing sense, a program that turns source code into machine code, is a later extension of the older idea of gathering material into one whole.

Synonyms: translators, processors