释义 |
producer|prəʊˈdjuːsə(r)| [f. produce v. + -er1.] 1. a. One who or that which produces; in various senses: see the verb.
1513Douglas æneis xii. xiii. 92 Jupiter the..producer of men and euery thing [orig. hominum rerumque repertor]. 1587[see produce v. 3]. 1676G. Towerson Decalogue 359 Hatred is not murther..yet it is..at least the producer of it. 1752J. Gill Trinity vi. 113 The first parent, bringer forth, or producer of every creature. 1844Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. V. i. 60 Pearl [wheat].—Very white, compact ear, and great producer. 1881M. Arnold in Macm. Mag. Mar. 368/2 The producer of such poems could not but publish them. 1903Daily Chron. 15 Apr. 5/2 Mexico, the greatest silver producer in the world. b. The person who produces a dramatic performance, film, or broadcast programme.
1891Scott & Howard Life E. L. Blanchard I. 213 Though he was a clever actor, he rose to greater fame as what we should now call a stage-manager or producer of plays. 1896G. B. Shaw in Labour Leader 19 Dec. 443/4 Our extraordinary clever producer of Ibsen would get enormously rich. 1909Westm. Gaz. 30 Apr. 5/2 Mr. Louis Calvert's appointment as stage manager, or, according to the more modern term, ‘producer’ of the so-called Millionaires' Theatre in New York, may be reckoned a high compliment. 1911D. S. Hulfish Cycl. Motion-Picture Work II. 95 The producer is in charge of the studio. 1912F. A. Talbot Moving Pictures 329 There is every indication that the British producers are making up headway. 1915Times 26 Nov. 11/4 The English film-producers of all branches are rapidly proving that..the hustle of the American ‘producer’, and the mobile features..of the foreign actor are not essential. 1925Scribner's Mag. Sept. 283/2 The great Delando, most resourceful of the Broadway producers, put down the last act of ‘The Republic’. 1933Radio Times 14 Apr. 72/2 It will be interesting to see how the producers handle a ‘spectacular’ show of this kind. 1938,1944[see director 1 g]. 1949A. Huxley Ape & Essence 24 Titles, credits and finally..the name of the producer. 1961G. Millerson Technique Television Production 190 The producer may be the business-head of the programme, responsible for organization, finance, policy, etc., while his director is concerned with interpretation, staging and directing its production. 1973Radio Times 26 July 55/1 The producer [in TV] has overall charge of the production..and it is he who marshals the resources of the BBC to make sure the production is appropriate to the play and to the series of which the play is part. 1976M. Maguire Scratchproof iv. 51 Sam Goldwyn used to say that a producer shouldn't get ulcers, he should give them. c. producer-in-chief.
1939M. Spring Rice Working-Class Wives i. 13 Men..are the recognised producers-in-chief. 1976S. Wales Echo 23 Nov. 6/6 He is also producer-in-chief of a series of plays for Granada which will be shown in Britain. 2. Pol. Econ. One who produces (grows, digs, or manufactures) an article of consumption. Opposed to consumer.
1784Adam Smith Wealth of Nations (ed. 3) II. iv. viii. 515 The interest of the consumer is almost constantly sacrificed to that of the producer. 1790Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. V. 290 In every prosperous community something more is produced than goes to the immediate support of the producer. 1832H. Martineau Hill & Valley iii. 40 How many classes of producers do you reckon? 1864H. Spencer Princ. Biol. iii. v. I. 373 He ceases to be a producer, and becomes simply a channel through which the produce of others is conveyed to the public. 1878Huxley Physiogr. 227 The pigeon is a consumer, not a producer. 1879Rogers in Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 67/2 The means for bringing producer and consumer together. 3. Short for gas producer, a furnace for producing fuel gas by passing a current of air and usually steam through hot solid fuel so that incomplete combustion occurs; producer gas, gas so produced, used as a low-grade but inexpensive fuel and consisting chiefly of nitrogen and carbon monoxide with smaller amounts of hydrogen and carbon dioxide.
1881Raymond Mining Gloss., Producer, see Gas-producer. 1890W. J. Gordon Foundry 13 Here are the half-dozen producers, to give the gas for the two Siemens's furnaces. 1895Daily News 22 Oct. 9/1 The motive power..supplied by a large Crossley gas engine worked by producer gas and three 20 horse power dynamos. 1902Encyl. Brit. XXVIII. 595/1 In all the attempts to make water gas up to that date the incandescence of the fuel had been obtained by ‘blowing’ so deep a bed of fuel that carbon monoxide and the residual nitrogen of the air formed the chief products, this mixture being known as ‘producer’ gas. 1939Times 28 Mar. 11/2 Fuel costs favoured the producer gas engine compared with the oil or petrol engine. 1941Thorpe's Dict. Appl. Chem. (ed. 4) V. 368/1 In the Thwaite cupola producer.., where a dry-air blast..is employed, it is usual to add a certain proportion of limestone to the fuel charge in order to form a liquid slag with the ashes. 1967M. Chandler Ceramics in Mod. World ii. 81 If producer gas or heavy oils are used..it is necessary to have a muffle throughout the length of a kiln. 4. Ecol. Any organism or part of an organism that produces the organic compounds it needs from simple substances such as water, carbon dioxide, or nitrogen. Freq. attrib.
1941Q. Rev. Biol. XVI. 395/1 In the marine plankton the plant type of life is sometimes called ‘producer’ and the animal type ‘consumer’ plankton. Ibid. 397/1 Certain important groups of producer plankton.. were absent from the neighbourhood of the poles. Ibid., The hotter regions..favor the more catabolic types of metabolism among the producers by a general increase of vital velocities. 1942Ecology XXIII. 400/2 In the language of community economics introduced by Thienemann ('26), autotrophic plants are producer organisms, employing the energy obtained by photosynthesis to synthesize complex organic substances from simple inorganic substances. 1953E. P. Odum Fund. Ecol. ix. 223 Considering the fresh-water environment as a whole, the algae are the most important producers. 1976T. C. Emmel Population Biol. i. 21 The first trophic level in ecosystems is represented by green plants and comprises the producers (or autrotrophs). 1978Sci. Amer. Mar. 102/2 These rodents derive energy directly from the primary producers (leaves, shoots, seeds and buds), from other consumers (invertebrates in the forest litter and occasionally birds' eggs and young) and from decomposers (fungi). 5. attrib. and Comb., as producer-exhibitor, producer-novelist, producer-retailer; producer goods (see quot. 1956); producer-oriented a., interested in or favouring the producer of goods rather than the consumer.
1920Stage Year Bk. 52 It became increasingly certain, however, that the main body of exhibitors was opposed to the producer-exhibitor. 1951Manch. Guardian 14 May 4/2 It is, of course, extremely difficult to give a coherent picture when you are showing objects..that include producer goods, consumer goods, and transport. 1956J. C. Swayne Conc. Gloss Geogr. Terms 114 Producer goods, goods used to make other goods. 1969Listener 13 Feb. 219/2 The producer-novelist David Thomson gave us a good example in From Oblivion to Obscurity (Third Programme), by another novelist, with previous radio successes, F. C. Ball.
1962Times 18 Oct. (Walter Thompson Suppl.) p. ii/3 Monopolists and critics of advertising..are fundamentally producer-oriented. 1964M. McLuhan Understanding Media (1967) ii. xxxi. 333 Nearly all of our technologies since Gutenberg have been..not producer-oriented, but consumer-oriented.
1938Daily Tel. 16 Feb. 14/6 Finally, it is said that compulsory pasteurisation would threaten the economic existence of the small producer-retailer. 1960Farmer & Stockbreeder 5 Jan. 87/2 Producer-retailers with over 50 head of poultry will again be required to contribute 1/4d per dozen. |