You can picture a table covered with loose pieces that other people made: poems, notes, numbers, lines of code. A compiler is whoever, or whatever, sweeps those pieces together, chooses what belongs, puts them in an order, and hands back one usable thing. The value is in the gathering and the ordering, not in inventing the pieces.
From the word’s history
Compiler is compile plus -er. Compile comes through Middle English compilour and Old French compileur from Latin compilatorem, and its idea is gathering material together, which is exactly where the modern core sits.
compiler 是 compile 加上 -er。compile 經由中古英語 compilour、古法文 compileur，來自拉丁文 compīlātōrem，本來的意思就是「把材料收攏在一起」。這條線索正好落在今天的核心畫面上：收齊，然後整理。
Wiktionary etymology supplied in packet (kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:606770176:21325): From Middle English compilour, from Anglo-Norman compilour, from Old French compileur, from Latin compilatorem, equivalent to compile + -er.
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。