Operaatorid

Operaatorid is the plural of operaator. In Estonian, operaator can refer to a person who operates machines or equipment, as well as to an organization that provides a service. The term is used across fields such as manufacturing, broadcasting, transportation, and telecommunications, and it is commonly applied to service providers, particularly telecom operators.

In industrial contexts, operators monitor and control equipment, perform start-up and shutdown procedures, read instruments, adjust settings, and respond to alarms. They may specialise in process control, machinery operation, or plant supervision, and work from control rooms, consoles, or field stations. Training focuses on safety regulations, technical skills, and quality assurance; certification is common for handling high-risk equipment.

In computing and mathematics, operaatorid denote symbols or functions that perform operations on operands. Arithmetic operators such as +, −, ×, and ÷, as well as logical operators like and, or, not, are examples. In programming languages, operators form part of expressions and determine how values are combined and evaluated. The term is therefore used to describe both human operators and symbolic or functional operators within code.

Etymology and usage: the word is borrowed from French opérateur (operator) and is established in Estonian with a broad application to people and entities that operate systems, as well as to abstract operators in mathematical and computational contexts. See also: operator.