# Is there a title for any kind of sports official ending in "-lator?"
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-title-for-any-kind-of-sports-official-ending-in-lator/1017472
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 25, 2025, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-title-for-any-kind-of-sports-official-ending-in-lator/1017472 "2025-04-25T09:21:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@themapleleaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/themapleleaf)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2025, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-title-for-any-kind-of-sports-official-ending-in-lator/1017472/1 "2025-04-25T09:21:44Z")
This is a memory from my early childhood. I was four years old and in junior kindergarten. There was an outdoor activity day at my public school, and there would have been team games. The one thing I remember of that day was of hearing my teacher - or another one - calling over a loudspeaker all “[team] captains and **envalators** ”.
The word I have bolded is obviously a mishearing of something. But I have no clue of what the word might have been originally. The closest title I have come across is “invigilator”, but that is a person who monitors exams to make sure no one is cheating, and not anyone associated with sports.
Is there any official associated with sports, teams, games, or contests whose title ends with “-lator” or “-ator”?
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2025, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-title-for-any-kind-of-sports-official-ending-in-lator/1017472/2 "2025-04-25T09:40:22Z")
Could it have been that they said the first part of a two-part phrase, where the second part was _leaders?_
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### Author:  [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2025, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-title-for-any-kind-of-sports-official-ending-in-lator/1017472/3 "2025-04-25T09:49:07Z")
Evaluators? Seems kind of a weird term to use, but it could have been just your school. Or ‘facilitators’?
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### Author:  [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2025, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-title-for-any-kind-of-sports-official-ending-in-lator/1017472/4 "2025-04-25T10:09:13Z")
> [@themapleleaf](#):
>
> The closest title I have come across is “invigilator”, but that is a person who monitors exams to make sure no one is cheating, and not anyone associated with sports.
Invigilating means supervising or monitoring. I know it’s most commonly used for exam proctors whose job is to prevent cheating in a test, but I don’t think the verb is semantically restricted to that. Couldn’t it indeed have been “invigilators” in the sense of kindergarten teachers who are supervising a group of kids during some physical activity? Etymologically, “invigilate” comes from a Latin word meaning “staying awake” - cf. a vigil, or “vigili del fuoco”, which is the modern Italian word for firefighters.
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### Author:  [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2025, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-title-for-any-kind-of-sports-official-ending-in-lator/1017472/5 "2025-04-25T10:58:43Z")
Maybe adjudicator?
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### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2025, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-title-for-any-kind-of-sports-official-ending-in-lator/1017472/6 "2025-04-25T13:47:13Z")
Interpolator?
Translator?
Infiltrator?
Ball inflator?
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2025, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-title-for-any-kind-of-sports-official-ending-in-lator/1017472/7 "2025-04-25T15:06:23Z")
Coordinators?
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### Author:  [@themapleleaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/themapleleaf)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2025, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-title-for-any-kind-of-sports-official-ending-in-lator/1017472/8 "2025-04-25T18:13:42Z")
Interesting suggestions, everyone. Who knows what it was, perhaps something as simple as “evaluators” or “coordinators”?
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### Author:  [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2025, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-title-for-any-kind-of-sports-official-ending-in-lator/1017472/9 "2025-04-26T16:03:26Z")
Not that I know of, but it’s such an english-sounding word that we should immediately make up a meaning for it. Then it will diffuse into the language, like ‘cromulent’. 🙂
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### Author:  [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2025, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-title-for-any-kind-of-sports-official-ending-in-lator/1017472/10 "2025-04-26T16:18:13Z")
After dining at a resaurant with an agreement at a nearby public garage, I was directed to the _parking validator,_ a little machine that reads the ticket and updates the payment/gate system allow free exit.
Edit: whoops. No el. Lator.
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### Author:  [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2025, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-title-for-any-kind-of-sports-official-ending-in-lator/1017472/11 "2025-04-26T17:45:56Z")
Since we have an _elevator_ and an _escalator_, perhaps it might be some sort of lifting device. Or at least transport.
How about _envalator_: a sideways moving “elevator”-type device.
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### Author:  [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2025, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-title-for-any-kind-of-sports-official-ending-in-lator/1017472/12 "2025-04-26T18:15:35Z")
> [@Irishman](#):
>
> How about _envalator_: a sideways moving “elevator”-type device.
I think that already exists, in the form of moving walkways.
And in fact, in Genoa, Italy, there is already a device of that sort which starts out moving horizontally and then switches to vertical motion.
> **[The Strangest Elevator in Italy? This Lift in Genoa Moves Sideways and...](https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/80106/strangest-elevator-italy-lift-genoa-moves-sideways-and-vertically)**
>
> The elevator operates in two sections, but passengers don't have to leave the car in between.
I have ridden it, rather fun actually!
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### Author:  [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2025, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-title-for-any-kind-of-sports-official-ending-in-lator/1017472/13 "2025-04-26T18:34:16Z")
Now I know where to go if I want to experience a Star Trek-style turbolift.
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### Author:  [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2025, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-title-for-any-kind-of-sports-official-ending-in-lator/1017472/14 "2025-04-26T18:56:19Z")
> [@xtenkfarpl](#):
>
> I think that already exists, in the form of moving walkways.
No, I mean an enclosed box that can move sideways instead of just vertically. The turbolift.
> [@xtenkfarpl](#):
>
> And in fact, in Genoa, Italy, there is already a device of that sort which starts out moving horizontally and then switches to vertical motion.
Ah, but I’m proposing a generic class name for those type devices.
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### Author:  [@Hoops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoops)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2025, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-title-for-any-kind-of-sports-official-ending-in-lator/1017472/15 "2025-04-26T19:04:28Z")
I’m positive this would not be the word you remember, but as an FQ answer to an FQ question, I’d nominate _translator:_
> **['This is a 24/7 job': MLB team translators serve a vital role in modern game...](https://www.sportingnews.com/us/mlb/news/this-is-a-247-job-mlb-team-translators-serve-a-vital-role-in-modern-game/bat41ck7k2w1qitq7qmltltr)**
>
> Since the 2016 season, every team at the major league level has been required to have a Spanish-speaking translator on its staff.