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by SEMW 1877 days ago
...Or, just maybe, from the English word "proctor", meaning someone who invigilates an exam.

Which is from the Latin "procurator" meaning overseer, unrelated to the Greek procto-

2 comments

Please send the proctor to my home, I'm cramming for my final exam and need some help invigilating my webcam...

https://www.hemantmedicam.com/product/usb-video-proctoscope/

Yeah i found that..

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/proctor

Though in fairness proctor / procurator are extremely antiquated english words, that have survived in common usage only in the US for some reason.

Proctor is in wide use in education, not just in the US.
Scotland’s Procurators Fiscal are fairly important and frequently referred to.
I reckon the majority of english speakers who read 'Proctorio' will immediately think anus.
I recon the majority of english speakers will not think of the Greek word for anus. Especially educated English speakers who have had exams proctored before.
Google Trends: "proctor" is dramatically more common than "proctologist". I'd go so far as to say you're objectively wrong.

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?geo=US&q=proctor,pr...

Isn't that a measure of how often words are searched? Everyone knows what a proctologist is, and no one wants to learn any more about them than they absolutely have to learn. A comedic trope is for a sadistic doctor to brutally thrust his hand into a nitrile glove and ask if some poor sap is ready for his exam. On the other hand, those with college degrees (a minority of the population) have heard the word "proctor" on eight different occasions in their entire lives.
I think the majority of English speakers are completely unaware of this meaning. “Proctor” on the other hand, is something they would’ve heard of in an exam setting.
Mabye I'm in the minority; I'd never heard of a "Proctor", but I have heard of a "Proctologist", which is an anus doctor
Is this one of those regional things? Is the same word used throughout the entire English speaking world?

Not a native English speaker myself, so my association was to the Greek word as well.