telephone operator; switchboard operator
Refers to a person who manually connects telephone calls, especially in older manual exchange systems. Now largely historical.
昔は交換手が手動で電話をつないでいた。
In the past, operators connected calls manually.
telephone operator
Compound of 交換 (switch, exchange) and 手 (person, worker). The exact historical derivation is straightforward; the term reflects the role of manually exchanging telephone connections.