[a. L. cooperātor fellow-worker (Vulgate), agent-n. from cooperārī to CO-OPERATE. So F. coopérateur (16th c.).]
1. One who cooperates with another or others; a fellow-worker.
a. 1600. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., VI. vi. § 11. God the author … and man a cooperator by him assigned to work for, with, and under him.
a. 1677. Barrow, Serm. (1686), I. xii. 169. They are … Co-operatours with God.
1789. Hist., in Ann. Reg., 8. They were styled the adjutants, co-operators, and administrators of the public weal.
1835. Arnold, Lett., in Stanley, Life & Corr. (1844), II. viii. 16. The cooperators with whom I may possibly have to work.
1860. Maury, Phys. Geog. Sea, xi. § 507. The plan which is followed by Captain Ginn … one of our co-operators.
2. A member of a cooperative society; one who practises industrial cooperation.
1863. Q. Rev., CXIV. 438. The opinion is growing among the London co-operators that the system [etc.].
1884. Century Mag., XXVIII. 134. The Cooperators, who form the other great branch of the industrial movement in England.
