Maybe it’s because I worked in electronics for many years that I find the translations of Geber and its compound forms a bit annoying.

Today I bumped into Temperaturgeber, which my predecessor had translated as “temperature transmitter”. Sometimes you get “temperature sender”. They both express this idea of generosity. The kind sensor is giving you the value that it measured and, for German speakers, the important aspect emphasised in the word is the giving.

Well, English engineers are more interested in the sensitive side of things, what’s important to us is the sensing, so we call it a “sensor”, whether you are given the value or it is transmitted to you is of secondary interest, it is what it senses that’s important to us.