Arbiter
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˈɑËbɪtÉ™(r)/
Origin
Old French arbitre, from Latin arbiter ("a witness, judge, literally one who goes to see").
Full definition of arbiter
Noun
arbiter
(plural arbiters)- A person appointed, or chosen, by parties to determine a controversy between them; an arbitrator.
- 1931, William Bennett Munro, The government of the United States, national, state, and local, page 495In order to protect individual liberty there must be an arbiter between the governing powers and the governed.
- (with of) A person or object having the power of judging and determining, or ordaining, without control; one whose power of deciding and governing is not limited.Television and film, not Vogue'' and similar magazines, are the arbiters of fashion.
- (electronics) A component in circuitry that allocates scarce resources.
Related terms
Verb
- (transitive) To act as arbiter.
- 2003, Jean-Benoit Nadeau, Julie Barlow, Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't be Wrong: Why We Love France But Not the French, page 116Worse, since there was no institution to arbiter disagreements between Parliament and the government, whenever Parliament voted against the government on the smallest issues, coalitions fragmented, and governments had to be recomposed.