Encryptor

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A tool or program that changes readable data into an obscured format to protect its content from unwanted access
2. A system employed to encode information in order to safeguard it from unauthorized users
3. A device or software application that transforms data into a secret code to prevent unauthorized viewing

Etymology: "Encryptor" is about as plain as English etymology gets: it is simply "encrypt" with the agent suffix "-or" added to the end. The suffix, borrowed through Anglo-French from Latin "-or", turns a verb into a noun for the thing or person doing the action, so an encryptor is whatever performs encryption, here a program that scrambles data into unreadable form. The verb "encrypt" itself is built from "en-", meaning "in" or "into", and "crypt", from Greek "kryptos", meaning "hidden" or "secret." The pattern of the two parts is therefore "put into hiddenness," which fits the scrambling that the word now describes. Because the word is a modern technical coinage built from these familiar parts, its history is short and transparent.

Synonyms: coder, encoder