mutator

From mutate +‎ -or.

The video gaming sense likely originated in the video game Unreal Tournament (1999).

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmjuteɪtɚ/

mutator (plural mutators)

1. That which causes mutation or change.

   In object-oriented programming, the mutator function changes the value of the field that gives its name.

2. (video games) A setting which alters specific gameplay mechanics, such as rules, physics, or abilities.
   • 2015 October 28, Tom Phillips, “Rocket League match mutators to arrive in free November update”, in Eurogamer.net‎^[1]:

     Rocket League will gain match-modifying mutators […] The football-meets-cars mashup will let you toggle on gameplay-changing settings such as low gravity, time warping and explosions.

• setter

• accessor

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [muːˈtaː.tɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [muˈt̪aː.t̪or]

mūtātor

1. second/third-person singular future passive imperative of mūtō

• “mutator”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• mutator in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “mutator”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

Borrowed from French mutateur. By surface analysis, muta +‎ -tor.

mutator n (plural mutatoare)

1. mutator