[a. L. auscultātor, n. of agent f. auscultāre: see prec. and -OR.]
1. Med. One who practises auscultation.
1833. J. Forbes, Cycl. Pract. Med., I. 225. In the hands of an expert auscultator.
1872. T. G. Thomas, Dis. Women, 77. The auscultator … bringing to his aid the double stethoscope.
ǁ 2. Title formerly given in Germany to a young lawyer who has passed his first public examination, and is thereupon employed by Government, but without salary and with no fixed appointment. (Now called referendar.) Hence Auscultatorship.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res. (1858), iv. 75. His first Law-Examination he has come-through triumphantly … he is hereby ‘an Auscultator of respectability.’ Ibid., 76. His progress from the passive Auscultatorship, towards any active Assessorship.
1884. Sat. Rev., 2 Feb., 146/1. At the age of nineteen [he] entered the profession as Auscultator, a sort of articled clerk.
