factor

English

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factor

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• factour (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle French facteur, from Latin factor (“a doer, maker, performer”), from factus (“done or made”), perfect passive participle of faciō (“do, make”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfæk.tə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfæk.tɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: fact‧or
• Rhymes: -æktə(ɹ)

Noun

factor (plural factors)

1. (obsolete) A doer, maker; a person who does things for another person or organization.

   The factor of the trading post bought the furs.

2. An agent or representative.
   • c. 1589–1590 (date written), Christopher Marlo[we], edited by Tho[mas] Heywood, The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Iew of Malta. , London: I B for Nicholas Vavasour, , published 1633, →OCLC, (please specify the page):

     My factor sends me word, a merchant's fled / That owes me for a hundred tun of wine.

   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 21, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes , book II, London: Val Simmes for Edward Blount , →OCLC:

     And let such as will number the Kings of Castile and Portugall amongst the warlike and magnanimous conquerors, seeke for some other adherent then my selfe, forsomuch as twelve hundred leagues from their idle residence they have made themselves masters of both Indias, onely by the conduct and direction of their factors, of whom it would be knowne whether they durst but goe and enjoy them in person.

   • 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.], →OCLC:

     What does he therefore, but resolvs to give over toyling, and to find himself out som factor, to whose care and credit he may commit the whole managing of his religious affairs; som Divine of note and estimation that must be.

   • 1985, Haynes Owners Workshop Manual, BMW:

     Motor factors — Good factors will stock all of the more important components which wear out relatively quickly.

3. (law)
   1. A commission agent.
   2. A person or business organization that provides money for another's new business venture; one who finances another's business.
   3. A business organization that lends money on accounts receivable or buys and collects accounts receivable.
5. One of the elements, circumstances, or influences which contribute to produce a result.

   The greatest factor in the decision was the need for public transportation.

   The economy was a factor in this year's budget figures.

   • 1864-1898, Herbert Spencer, Principles of Biology

     the material and dynamical factors of nutrition

6. (mathematics) Any of various objects multiplied together to form some whole.

   3 is a factor of 12, as are 2, 4 and 6.

   The factors of the Klein four-group are both cyclic of order 2.

   • 1956, Arthur C. Clarke, The City and the Stars, page 38:

     The first thousand primes […] marched in order before him […] the complete sequence of all those numbers that possessed no factors except themselves and unity.

7. (causal analysis) Influence; a phenomenon that affects the nature, the magnitude, and/or the timing of a consequence.

   The launch temperature was a factor of the Challenger disaster.

   • 2013 May-June, Charles T. Ambrose, “Alzheimer’s Disease”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 200:

     Similar studies of rats have employed four different intracranial resorbable, slow sustained release systems— […]. Such a slow-release device containing angiogenic factors could be placed on the pia mater covering the cerebral cortex and tested in persons with senile dementia in long term studies.

8. (economics) A resource used in the production of goods or services, a factor of production.
   • 2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68:

     The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them […] is often assumed to be the preserve of high-tech companies. […] current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate […] “stateless income”: profit subject to tax in a jurisdiction that is neither the location of the factors of production that generate the income nor where the parent firm is domiciled.

9. (Scotland) A steward or bailiff of an estate.
   • 1822, [Walter Scott], The Pirate. , volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC:

     the factor was so scrupulous, as to keep the whole thing from his master, the lord chamberlain

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

Other terms used in arithmetic operations:

Advanced hyperoperations: tetration, pentation, hexation

Verb

factor (third-person singular simple present factors, present participle factoring, simple past and past participle factored)

1. (transitive) To find all the factors of (a number or other mathematical object) (the objects that divide it evenly).
2. (of a number or other mathematical object, intransitive) To be a product of other objects.
3. (commercial, transitive) To sell a debt or debts to an agent (the factor) to collect.

Derived terms

• factor in
• factor out
• refactor

Translations

See also

• addition, summation: (augend) + (addend) = (summand) × (summand) = (sum, total)
• subtraction: (minuend) − (subtrahend) = (difference)
• multiplication: (multiplier) × (multiplicand) = (factor) × (factor) = (product)
• division: (dividend) ÷ (divisor) = (quotient), remainder left over if divisor does not divide dividend

Further reading

• “factor”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “factor”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin factōrem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic)
• IPA^(key): (Valencian)

Noun

factor m (plural factors)

1. doer, agent (someone who does something)
2. factor (element, important part)
3. (biology, mathematics) factor
4. (railroad) porter
5. (business, commerce) agent (someone who buys and sells on someone else's behalf)

Further reading

• “factor” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch factoor, from Middle French facteur, from Latin factor (“a doer, maker, performer”), from factus (“done or made”), perfect passive participle of faciō (“do, make”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɑk.tɔr/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: fac‧tor

Noun

factor m (plural factoren, diminutive factortje n)

1. a factor, element

   Een belangrijke factor voor succes is hard werken.

   A key factor for success is hard work.

2. (mathematics) factor

   In de wiskunde kun je een getal ontbinden in factoren om het te vereenvoudigen.

   In mathematics, you can decompose a number into factors to simplify it.

3. (obsolete) business representative

Descendants

• Afrikaans: faktor
• → Indonesian: faktor
• → West Frisian: faktor

Latin

Etymology

From faciō (“to do, make”) +‎ -tor (masculine agent noun suffix).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈfak.tor/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈfak.tor/,

Noun

factor m (genitive factōris); third declension

1. One who or which does or makes something; doer, maker, performer, perpetrator, agent, player.

   Credo in unum Deum, Patrem omnipoténtem, factórem cæli et terræ ― I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of Heaven and earth.

2. (sports) player, batsman

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Related terms

• factus
• factura

Descendants

References

• “factor”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• factor in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• factor in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “factor”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “factor”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

Portuguese

Noun

factor m (plural factores)

1. Pre-reform spelling (until Brazil 1943/Portugal 1990) of fator. Still used in countries where the agreement hasn't come into effect; may occur as a sporadic misspelling.

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French facteur.

Noun

factor m (plural factori)

1. factor
2. postal worker, postman, mailman

Declension

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin factor. Compare the inherited doublet hechor (cf. malhechor).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /faɡˈtoɾ/

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -oɾ
• Syllabification: fac‧tor

Noun

factor m (plural factores)

1. factor

Derived terms

Related terms

Further reading

• “factor”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014