Other forms: regulators
A regulator is a device or body that keeps something within limits. The industry regulator, a pressure regulator, an independent regulator.
The mechanical kind holds a quantity steady — pressure, voltage, the flow of air from a diving cylinder — and the institutional kind does the same job for an industry. Regulatory capture is the standing danger: a regulator that comes to serve the industry it watches. Note regulate, from the Latin for a rule.
1nounregulatorA body that keeps an industry within limits.
“The energy regulator ordered the company to lower its prices.”
2noundeviceA device that holds a quantity steady.
“The gas regulator keeps the pressure steady so the flame doesn't flare up.”
regulator is a controller.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₃reǵ-
Latin
regulatus
English
regulate
English, today
regulator
Built from
From regulate + -or. regulate Borrowed from Latin regulatus, perfect passive participle of regulō (“to direct, rule, regulate”) (see -ate), from regula (“rule”), from regō (“to keep straight, direct, govern, rule”). Compare regle, rail. Displaced native metegian.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA