Contaminator

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A factor or agent that results in the introduction of impurities into an environment or material
2. An entity that negatively affects the purity or quality of a specific substance or area
3. One that introduces harmful substances or impurities into an environment or material

Etymology: "Contaminator" is a plain English formation: the verb "contaminate" with the agent suffix "-or", meaning one who or that which performs the action. The verb itself comes from Latin "contaminare," meaning to defile or pollute, built from "con-" (together) and a root connected to "tangere," to touch. So a contaminator is literally one who touches things together in a way that spoils them. The suffix has a long pedigree of its own. It descends from Latin "-tor," which appears in words like "creator" and "orator," and it passed into English through Old French and Middle English, where the form "-our" was common. English later standardised the spelling as "-or."

Synonyms: pollutant, taint, defilement, impurity, spoiler