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🧪 A material arranger ⚰️ A body dresser
preparator

preparator

1 7.4
A person who prepares materials and objects for science labs or museums
  • noun
  • /prɪˈpɛrətər/
translation icon : preparador
  • The program provides young museum volunteers the opportunity to see what a career in paleontology might be like by working alongside real paleontologists, preparators, and educators.
  • museum preparators
  • volunteer preparators

Examples

  • This working fossil lab has public viewing areas where visitors can watch and interact with museum scientists, preparators, and technicians as they research and re-articulate specimens.

    Academic text (1995)

  • The Roosevelt Rotunda mount reflects the legacy of many early paleontologists and the efforts of contemporary scientists and fossil preparators.

    Academic text (1991)

  • In fact, many of Heye's field agents had no college at all and little formal training: for example, preparator William C. Orchard, staff assistant Charles O. Turbyfill, and staff photographer Edwin F. Coffin, all of whom made field collections.

    Academic text (2006)

  • Completed in 1905 by Norman Boss, a Smithsonian preparator, and Charles Gilmore, a dinosaur curator, it originally stood in the Smithsonian's Arts & Industries Building.

    Academic text (2000)

  • Benson, Chapman, and Steve Jabo, a preparator in the Department of Paleobiology at the Smithsonian, went to Utah to meet two technology advocates who would be key players in the preservation effort.

    Academic text (2000)

  • At the museum, the preparator carefully arranged the collection before the opening of the new exhibit.

  • As a preparator, she was responsible for mounting the fossils in the display cases at the natural history museum.

  • The preparator worked diligently to ensure that all the specimens were labeled correctly for the educational program.

Synonyms

preparer
vspreparator
7 2.8

A person who gets things ready for an event or task

focuses on preparing scientific, educational, or museum materials

Surface Forms

preparator singular
preparators plural

Morphology

preparator = prepare (transparent) = prepare + ator

Formed by the verb 'prepare' plus the agentive suffix '-ator', meaning 'a person who prepares', which is directly inferable.

Etymology

Preparator comes from the verb prepare, which itself comes from the parts pre- 'before' and parare 'make ready'. So a preparator is someone who makes things ready before work, which is why they set up specimens and equipment for science classes and museums.