Emily Dickinson Lexicon

GEN'ER-A-TOR, n.

1. He or that which begets, causes or produces.
2. In music, the principal sound or sounds by which others are produced. Thus the lowest C for the treble of the harpsichord, besides its octave, will strike an attentive ear with its twelfth above, or G in alt., and with its seventeenth above, or E in alt. Hence C is called their generator, the G and E its products or harmonics. Encyc.
3. A vessel in which steam is generated. Perkins.