One story says it was first used during the early days of the telephone to tell an operator that a message had been received.

VOA: special.2010.02.28

An electric motor helps the operator pull a heavy load or go up a hill.

VOA: special.2009.05.11

Her father was a pump operator for the city water department.

VOA: special.2009.01.12

People use a metal call box with a push-to-talk button to connect to a live operator, as Rose Shuman explains: "You just push a button, a big green button, and that will connect you directly to our operators who are sitting in front of computers, and speak your language.

VOA: special.2009.10.12

Slim,whose real name is Bill Homans, has come a long way from his job as a heavy equipment operator for the U.S.Army during the Vietnam War.

VOA: standard.2010.08.04

After two men died of heat-related causes in Moscow's metro, a consumer group sued the transit operator to bring down temperatures to the legal maximum of 32 degrees centigrade.

VOA: standard.2010.07.23