Plotter

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A schemer who devises covert plans against individuals or groups operates a mechanical device that generates visual representations by maneuvering a writing instrument on various surfaces
2. An individual who devises secret and strategic plans usually aimed at achieving a particular goal ; a machine that produces detailed graphical drawings by controlling a pen or other instrument on paper or materials
3. Someone engaged in forming hidden or crafty plots typically to influence events or people ; a piece of equipment designed to draw accurate images and designs automatically on various surfaces

Etymology: The word "plotter" is about as plain as English etymology gets: it is the noun "plot" with the agent suffix "-er" attached, meaning simply "one who plots." The suffix has a long pedigree of its own. It descends from a Latin ending "-arius," which English picked up through Old French "-ier" and Middle English "-er," while the same Latin ending reached Old English as "-ere" in words of its own. The sense of "plot" as a small piece of ground predates its sense of a secret scheme, and the mechanical meaning came much later. A plotter in the drawing-office sense is a device that moves a pen across paper under computer control, drawing lines and shapes by sweeping along two axes. That technical meaning arrived with the machines themselves in the twentieth century, when engineers needed a name for something that turned data into diagrams.

Synonyms: designer, planner, schemer, mapper, cartographer

Antonyms: follower, executor, imitator, reactor, passive