Oxygenator

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A machine or apparatus used to introduce oxygen into a liquid or gas, often to support breathing or chemical reactions
2. Equipment designed to supply oxygen by mixing it into fluids or air for medical or industrial purposes
3. An instrument that increases oxygen content in a medium, commonly used in healthcare or environmental processes

Etymology: The word is a straightforward construction: "oxygenate" with the agent suffix "-or" attached. The verb "oxygenate" was formed in English from "oxygen," the element name coined by the French chemist Antoine Lavoisier in the 1700s from Greek roots meaning "acid-former," since he believed oxygen was the essential ingredient of all acids. The suffix "-or" traces back through Old French and Latin "-tor," a marker for a person or thing that performs an action, so an oxygenator is literally a device that does the oxygenating. The "-or" ending is the same one found in words like "actor" and "conductor," which reveals the logic of the formation: the machine is defined by its job rather than by a special name of its own. Its most familiar use is in medicine, where the heart-lung machine used in surgery is often called an oxygenator because it adds oxygen to blood during the operation.

Synonyms: aerator, oxygen supplier, oxygen generator, breather, respirator