Irradiator

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A machine that produces and directs radiation for uses including sterilization, industrial processing, and medical treatment
2. An instrument that emits radiation aimed at applications such as material alteration, microbial destruction, and therapeutic procedures
3. A device that generates radiation for the purposes of killing bacteria, altering materials, and facilitating medical therapies

Etymology: The word is a plain formation: "irradiate" with the agent suffix "-or" added, so it names whatever does the irradiating. "Irradiate" itself comes from Latin "irradiare," meaning to shine upon or light up, built from "in-" ("upon") and "radiare" ("to emit rays," from "radius," a ray or spoke of light). Its earliest sense was literal, to illuminate with light, and the notion of exposing things to rays or energy came later. The "-or" ending comes from Latin "-or," which turned verbs into nouns for the agent doing the action, as in "actor" or "governor." Adding it to "irradiate" produced a word for a machine that performs that action on matter instead of on a scene. Because the process is the same one that gives the verb its meaning, the noun needs no further explanation: a device that bathes objects or tissue in radiation is an irradiator.