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urinator

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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WOTD – 6 April 2020

Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From urinate +‎ -or (suffix forming an agent noun, indicating a person who does something).

Noun

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urinator (plural urinators)

  1. A person who urinates.
    • 1996, R[obert] Emmett Tyrell, Jr., “The Making of the Clinton Cabal”, in Boy Clinton: The Political Biography, Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, →ISBN, page 94; Boy Clinton: The Political Biography‎[1], 1st e-book edition, Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, 2015, →ISBN:
      [In The Strawberry Statement (1969)] James Simon Kunen chronicled his role as an activist at Columbia University during the student takeover of several campus buildings. He overcame police barricades, climbed through windows, and joined his fellows in occupying the offices of President Grayson Kirk. Then in the company of his olive-drab colleagues he urinated in Kirk's wastepaper basket and read his mail. Reviewers esteemed the book highly and pronounced the youthful urinater an authentic Voice of Protest.
    • 2000, H. Charles Bluming, chapter 2, in Jew Boy in Goy Town: A Catskill Mountain Odyssey, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 17:
      Being an orthodox Jew, he kept his store closed on the Sabbath, and when one of his customers bemoaned his action with the remark, "It is a pity on your investment if you keep closed on Saturday; you are bound to lose it." My grandfather retorted, "Pisherke, ich huff tsu dir? Ich hab a Gutt." ("Urinator, do you think I pray to you? I have a God.")
    • 2000, Michael Stone, “The Homicide Investigation Unit”, in Gangbusters: How a Street-tough Elite Homicide Unit Took Down New York’s Most Dangerous Gang, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, →ISBN; 1st Anchor Books edition, New York, N.Y.: Anchor Books, Random House, June 2002, →ISBN, page 28:
      Swamped by so much serious crime, the New York police had all but given up on misdemeanor arrests and the streets teemed with an army of malefactors—beggars, scavengers, squeegee men, graffiti artists, vandals, public urinaters, jostlers, drug pushers, and purse snatchers—fostering the climate for still more violence.
    • 2001 May 30, Carl Hiaasen, “Go Away [May 30, 2001: Haul the Rampaging Nitwits off to Tourist Court]”, in Diane Stevenson, editor, Dance of the Reptiles: Selected Columns, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, published January 2014, →ISBN, page 5:
      Florida needs a special prison for tourists. [...] Let the police snatch the boor off the highway and drag his sorry butt straight to Tourist Court. Same goes for the drunks, stoners, and public urinators.
    • 2014, Jim Heynen, “Keeping One’s Secret”, in Ordinary Sins: After Theophrastus, Minneapolis, Minn.: Milkweed Editions, →ISBN, page 82:
      The urinator had not had the flu or a cold for ten years, not since he started urinating wherever he pleased. He didn't make a connection. He was not superstitious about his secret. All he knew is that the good life accompanied urinating wherever he pleased.
    • 2014, Sam Miller, “Prologue”, in A Strange Kind of Paradise: India through Foreign Eyes, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN; republished London: Vintage Books, 2015, →ISBN, pages 8–9:
      I then looked down and was startled to see a darkish, uncircumcised willy being waggled dry; its owner, relieving himself against the garden wall, quite unaware of my presence. [...] [A] horizontal strip of white tiles, with religious images, had been embedded, a little below penis-level, along the beach side of the garden wall; tiles with images of Shiva, Jesus, Koranic calligraphy, a Sikh guru, the Buddha and a Zoroastrian angel. But it hadn't really worked. The urinators simply passed along the wall to a spot where someone else's religious symbol had been placed.
    • 2014, Jim Worsley, “Harry Steinfeldt”, in Nickel a Pack, Victoria, B.C.: FriesenPress, →ISBN, page 87:
      While doing my business at the urinal trough, along with maybe half dozen other guys, one guy started spouting this and that in a know-it-all manner. [...] Another "urinator" rolled his eyes at me as if to say, "This guy doesn't know his ass from hole in ground."
Alternative forms
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Translations
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Etymology 2

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From Latin ūrīnātor (“diver”), from ūrīnārī + -tor (suffix forming a (masculine) agent noun).[1] Ūrīnārī is the present active infinitive of ūrīnor (“to plunge under water, dive”), possibly from ūrīna (“urine; water (?)”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wer- (“to moisten; to flow”).

Noun

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urinator (plural urinators)

  1. (obsolete) A diver, especially someone who searches for things underwater.
    • 1680, J[ohn] Wilkins, “Concerning the Possibility of Framing an Ark for Submarine Navigations. The Difficulties and Conveniences of Such a Contrivance.”, in Mathematical Magick: Or, The Wonders that may be Performed by Mechanichal Geometry. In Two Books. […], 2nd edition, London: Printed for Edw[ard] Gellibrand […], →OCLC, 2nd book (Dædalus: Or, Mechanical Motions), page 189:
      But above all, the diſcovery of ſubmarine treaſures is more eſpecially conſiderable, not only in regard of what hath been drowned by wrecks, but the ſeveral precious things that grow there, as Pearl, Coral Mines, with innumerable other things of great value, which may be much more eaſily found out, and fetcht up by the help of this [a submarine], than by any other uſual way of the Urinators.
    • 1682 July 6, J[ohn] B[eale], “[Letter to Robert Boyle, sent from Yeovell, June 26, 1682 (Julian calendar)]”, in The Works of the Honourable Robert Boyle. In Six Volumes. To which is Prefixed the Life of the Author, new edition, volume VI, London: Printed for W. Johnston, […], published 1772, →OCLC, pages 445–446:
      [Y]ourſelf, in the ſecond tome of Uſefulneſs, have twice told them what you know of the ſkill of ſome urinators. And it is more than ten years ſince his majeſty's urinator, Mr. Curtis, publiſhed in the Gazette, how he had practiſed, and was furniſhed with inſtruments divers, and ſhipping, to recover permanent goods which are loſt by ſhipwreck; which minds me how eaſy it were, and advantageous for our merchants, in all their voyages, to be furniſhed with ſuch urinators; [...]
    • 1705, “The Life of Dr. Robert Hooke”, in Richard Waller, editor, The Posthumous Works of Robert Hooke, M.D. S.R.S. Geom. Prof. Gresh. &c. Containing His Cutlerian Lectures and Other Discourses, Read at Meetings of the Illustrious Royal Society. […], London: Publish’d by Richard Waller, R[oyal] S[ociety] Secr[etary]; printed by Sam[uel] Smith and Benj[amin] Walford, (printers to the Royal Society) […], →OCLC, page x:
      In Feb. 166¾. he [Robert Hooke] contriv'd a way to ſupply freſh Air to the Urinator under the Diving Bell by a Chain of Buckets and a Leaden Box for his Head, when he went out of the Bell to be ſupply'd with freſh Air from the Bell, &c.
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Translations
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References

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  1. ^ “† urinator, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1926.

Further reading

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Latin

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Etymology

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From ūrīnor +‎ -tor.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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ūrīnātor m (genitive ūrīnātōris, feminine ūrīnātrīx); third declension

  1. diver

Declension

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Third-declension noun.

singular plural
nominative ūrīnātor ūrīnātōrēs
genitive ūrīnātōris ūrīnātōrum
dative ūrīnātōrī ūrīnātōribus
accusative ūrīnātōrem ūrīnātōrēs
ablative ūrīnātōre ūrīnātōribus
vocative ūrīnātor ūrīnātōrēs

Quotations

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This entry needs quotations to illustrate usage. If you come across any interesting, durably archived quotes then please add them!

Verb

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ūrīnātor

  1. second/third-person singular future active imperative of ūrīnor

Descendants

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References

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  • “urinator”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • “urinator”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • urinator in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
  • “urinator”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
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