adaptern.
/əˈdaptə/, U.S. /əˈdæptər/ 1.
a. A device or part for connecting pieces of equipment which would otherwise be incompatible. In early use esp.: a short tube for connecting two pieces of glassware or other chemical apparatus; = adopter n. 3.
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society > occupation and work > equipment > [noun] > for connecting equipment
adapter1753
adaptor1764
interface1964
the world > time > change > change to something else, transformation > adaptation > [noun] > one who or that which adapts > device
adapter1753
1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl. Pl. 12 Adapters.
1771 H. Pemberton Course Chem. ii. vi. 96 For a small quantity of horns a coated retort, with or without an adapter, will suffice.
1790 W. Nicholson tr. A.-F. de Fourcroy Elements Nat. Hist. & Chem. (new ed.) III. xxiii. 124 He joined an adapter, and a receiver, communicating by a curved tube with an empty bottle.
1867 G. F. Chambers Descr. Astron. vii. i. 621 A more simple form of solar eye-piece is that which consists of an adapter in which a diaphragm plate is fitted as above.
1907 G. M. Norman Systematic Pract. Org. Chem. i. vi. 24 Fit the flask with a dropping funnel and an adapter which is connected with an inverted condenser.
1941 Pop. Sci. Monthly July 207/2 The adapter is a simple, light-tight box attached to the front of the bellows.
1990 Outdoor Life Apr. 16/3 A cantilevered mounting adapter..permits the mounting of ordinary hunting scopes over the receiver.
2007 San Antonio (Texas) Express-News (Nexis) 19 Aug. 2k There are also wired USB Ethernet adapters, but ones that work well with a Mac have been scarce.
b. An electrical fitting of this nature; spec. one allowing more than one plug, or plugs of a nonstandard type, to be connected to a socket.
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society > occupation and work > equipment > [noun] > for connecting equipment > not designed to be connected
adapter1886
the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > electricity > electrical appliances or devices > [noun] > connecting device
adapter1886
the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > electricity > electrical appliances or devices > [noun] > socket > for one or more plugs
adaptor1900
power bar1983
adapter2009
1886 U.S. Patent 348,647 1/1 These couplers or adapters are made so as to receive the base of a given lamp and to fit into a given holder or socket.
1914 Electr. World 10 Oct. 731/2 In order to convert screw-base flush receptacles into the more convenient ‘push-in’ type, a device called an ‘adapter’ has been developed.
1966 Life 8 Apr. 82/1 (advt.) With adapter (optional), plug it into any 120-volt AC outlet.
2009 Computeractive (Nexis) 15 Oct. It's important to stress that you must not overload multi-plug adapters.
2. A person who adapts something; esp. one who alters or amends a text, now typically to make it suitable for filming, broadcasting, or production on the stage.
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1771 Oxf. Mag. Nov. 259/1 Mr. Garrick (whom we take for granted to be the adapter of the Masque to theatrical representation) seems to have perfectly conceived the force of this observation.
1801 T. Chalmers Let. in W. Hanna Mem. T. Chalmers (1851) I. 48 Such adaptation speaks of a divine and intelligent adapter.
1841 T. De Quincey Homer & Homeridae in Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Dec. 751/1 If these imaginary adapters of Homer modernized his whole diction.
1865 Sat. Rev. 12 Aug. 210/1 The original author is of opinion that the adapter has not mended but marred his work.
1877 R. H. Hutton Ess. (ed. 2) I. 43 Intelligence is the conscious and voluntary adapter of means to ends.
1910 Times 19 Sept. 11/4 The adapter is almost invariably expected to subject the play to a general dilution and moral whitewashing.
1955 P. Chayefsky Television Plays 35 The adapter usually winds up picking a kernel of story from his material and improvising his own characters and insights.
2001 Daily Tel. 20 Nov. 5/3 Andrew Davies, the BBC's favourite adapter of period dramas.
3. A person who or thing which adapts to new or changing conditions, circumstances, etc. early adapter n. = early adopter n. at early adj. and n. Compounds 2. late adapter n. = late adopter n. at late adj.1 Compounds 4.
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the world > time > change > change to something else, transformation > adaptation > [noun] > one who or that which adapts
time-server1642
Maryland parson1811
adapter1900
adaptor1915
1900 Arena Oct. 429 Economy with the Jew is a thing of the past; in short, he is an adapter to an extreme degree.
1979 S. Krieger Hip Capitalism ii. 49 He had tried KMPX and felt the station had a high percent of influential early adapters, the trend-setters in Levi's San Francisco market.
1985 Wall St. Jrnl. 21 Jan. 25/5 Kids are what marketers call early adapters because they take to new ideas faster than most.
2002 J. McGarry Dream Date 57 ‘Are you getting used to civilian life?’ ‘I'm an adapter,’ she said. ‘That's what they teach you, in so many different ways.’
2010 H. F. Cohen How Mod. Sci. came into World xi. 382 In 1661 Isaac Newton, as a freshman at Cambridge (admittedly a late adapter even among universities), was routinely assigned an uncompromising Aristotelian work written in the 1620s as a textbook in natural philosophy.
4. Biochemistry. More fully adapter molecule. = adaptor n. 4.
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the world > life > biology > biological processes > genetic activity > genetic components > [noun] > nucleic acid > RNA > molecule of transfer RNA
adaptor1957
adapter1962
1962 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 48 461 The messenger-RNA contains a linear arrangement of sites which are complementary to different adapter molecules.
1985 Gene 40 171/2 Depending on the sequence of the ss domain of the adapter, the enzyme would cut at any chosen site on the target DNA.
2010 R. H. Garrett & C. M. Grisham Biochem. (new ed.) xxx. 952 These adapter molecules must interact specifically with both nucleic acids (mRNAs) and amino acids.
Compounds
General attributive (in sense 1), as adapter card, adapter plug, etc.
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1840 Polytechnic Jrnl. 3 16 The end of the adapter tube.
1876 Brit. Jrnl. Photogr. 17 Nov. 542/2 The adapter system, when applied to lenses and camera fronts, is one possessing great convenience.
1903 Jrnl. Royal Microsc. Soc. 520 The camera-neck is provided with a screw-thread on which, by means of an adapter ring, photographic objectives can be fixed.
1963 M. Caidin Man-in-Space Dict. 11/1 Adapter skirt, a flange or extension of a booster rocket stage or section that provides a ready means of fitting another stage or section to it.
1981 Electronics 20 Oct. 270/3 A universal adapter card that translates the 9516 bus structure into the bus structure of Millennium's 9508 microsystem emulator.
1993 Macworld Dec. 193.2 One company's drive typically did not work with another company's adapter board.
2010 Gazette (Montreal) (Nexis) 10 June e7 If you're going outside North America, you'll need adapter plugs.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2011; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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