streamer

streamer

English

Etymology

From Middle English stremer, stremere, equivalent to stream +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈstɹiːmə(ɹ)/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -iːmə(ɹ)

Noun

streamer (plural streamers)

1. A long, narrow flag, or piece of material used or seen as a decoration.
   • 1668, John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis: The Year of Wonders, M. DC. LXVI. […], London: […] Henry Herringman, […], OCLC 1064438096, (please specify the stanza number):

     Brave Rupert from afar appears, / Whose waving streamers the glad general knows.

   • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “Afterglow”, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 24962326, page 168:

     Breezes blowing from beds of iris quickened her breath with their perfume; she saw the tufted lilacs sway in the wind, and the streamers of mauve-tinted wistaria swinging, all a-glisten with golden bees; she saw a crimson cardinal winging through the foliage, and amorous tanagers flashing like scarlet flames athwart the pines.

2. Strips of paper or other material used as confetti.
3. (journalism) A newspaper headline that runs along the top of a page.
4. (computing) A data storage system, mainly used to produce backups, in which large quantities of data are transferred to a continuously moving tape; a tape drive.
5. (networking) Any mechanism for streaming data.
   • 2004, Cevdet Aykanat, Tugrul Dayar, Ibrahim Korpeoglu, Computer and Information Sciences - ISCIS 2004: 19th International Symposium (page 157)

     However, integration of a bandwidth estimation algorithm into an adaptive video streamer is not an easy task. Firstly, bandwidth estimation requires sending extra burst packets that brings a considerable overhead into the system.

6. (television, Internet) A subscription streaming service.

   Coordinate term: broadcaster

   • 2016 February 23, Jason Mittell, “Why Netflix Doesn’t Release Its Ratings”, in The Atlantic‎, retrieved 2022-11-01:

     For starters, the business models for American broadcasters like NBC and streamers like Netflix (or Hulu, or Amazon) are drastically different.

7. (Internet) A person who streams activities on their computer (especially video gaming) to a live online audience.

   Most streamers are on Twitch

   Hypernym: creator

   • 2020 December 18, Taylor Lorenz, “In 2020, These Things Came Out on Top”, in The New York Times‎, ISSN 0362-4331:

     There was perhaps no group of creators more prepared for the horrors of 2020 than streamers. Sitting in front of their cameras, often alone, talking for hours to the camera is what they do, and many are excellent at it.

8. (fishing) In fly fishing, a variety of wet fly designed to mimic a minnow.
9. (mining) One who searches for stream tin.
10. A stream or column of light shooting upward from the horizon, constituting one of the forms of the aurora borealis.
    • 1888, James Russell Lowell, Heartsease and Rue

      While overhead the North's dumb streamers shoot.

    • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, OCLC 1069526323:

      The moon was indeed at the full, and the northern streamers were shining brilliantly.

11. (UK, education, in combination) A pupil belonging to a particular stream (division by perceived ability).
    • 1984, Anthony Gale, ‎Antony J. Chapman, Psychology and Social Problems (page 82)

      Since he also demonstrated that the A-streamers in his sample showed enhancement of measured intelligence over their primary school careers while the B-streamers showed deterioration, it can be seen what a far-reaching effect such decisions may have had upon child performance.

Translations

long narrow flag

Bulgarian: вимпел m (vimpel) Danish: vimpel c, fanebånd n (military campaign honour) French: fanion (fr) m Maori: matairangi, pūhihi Polish: proporzec (pl) m, proporczyk (pl) m, wimpel m Portuguese: galhardete (pt) m Russian: вы́мпел (ru) m (výmpel) (flag), полоса́ (ru) f (polosá) Sicilian: nzareḍḍi, nzagareḍḍi (both plural) Swedish: vimpel (sv) c, serpentin (sv) c

paper

Portuguese: serpentina (pt) f Spanish: serpentina (es) f

newspaper headline that runs across the entire page

Russian: ша́пка (ru) f (šápka)

data storage system

Russian: стри́мер (ru) m (strímer)

a person who streams on internet

Korean: 스트리머 (seuteurimeo)

variety of wet fly in fly fishing

See also

• stream

Further reading

• “streamer”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “streamer”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
• “streamer”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “streamer” in the Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Anagrams

• masterer, remaster, restream