Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One who prepares specimens or exhibits for scientific study or display, as in a museum.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as amboceptor.
  • noun One who prepares or makes ready; a preparer; specifically, one who prepares anatomical subjects or specimens of natural history for study or exhibition; a prosector; a taxidermist.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One who prepares beforehand, as subjects for dissection, specimens for preservation in collections, etc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A person who prepares specimens or exhibits

Etymologies

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Examples

  • For 18 years this has been the stomping ground of fossil "preparator" Steve Jabo, who is best described as one part artist, one part scientist.

    WTOP / Business / Biz Stories 2009

  • Philip Montgomery for The Wall Street Journal Rebecca Meah , a preparator at the museum, shaping a clay model of a Sauroposeidon.

    Building Dinosaurs, From the Ground Up 2011

  • In reality, both sub-disciplines academic paleontologist and preparator must spend all of their time keeping up with their own sub-disciplines if they expect to do their jobs well.

    The Preparator ReBecca Foster 2009

  • Paleontological knowledge often "trickles down" from the academic paleontologist to the preparator, but it is far less common for preparation knowledge to "trickle up".

    The Preparator ReBecca Foster 2009

  • I consider myself to be both a preparator and a vertebrate paleontologist.

    The Preparator ReBecca Foster 2009

  • If you love to work with your hands AND your mind, if you are thrilled at the opportunity to discover something new with every brush or tool stroke and if you take pride in accomplishing physical perfection in a specimen your paleontologist boss thinks is impossible...become a preparator!

    The Preparator ReBecca Foster 2009

  • It is essential that a preparator know as much as possible about paleontological research in order to do his/her job well...but there is seldom a real need for an academic paleontologist to know the techniques and materials of preparation unless they, saddly, have no "Jimmy Valentine" of their own to support their research.

    The Preparator ReBecca Foster 2009

  • Dr. Dan Chure is a qualified researcher but lacks the expertise of a preparator or collections manager; there is clearly no overlap of skills!

    Help save Paleontology at Dinosaur National Monument!! ReBecca Foster 2008

  • Once again, the management at DINO are angling to cut the heart out of the paleo program, this time by eliminating Scott Madsen's (preparator/lab manager) and Ann Elder's (collection management) positions.

    Help save Paleontology at Dinosaur National Monument!! ReBecca Foster 2008

  • So, is the geologist a paleontologist, a preparator, or a geologist?

    Irony raises it froggy head: Late-Jurassic frog fossils from Dinosaur National Monument ReBecca Foster 2008

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