botanist

Etymology

The OED takes it as formed from English botany + -ist.^[2] The Shorter Oxford instead takes it as borrowed from French botaniste,^[3] and Merriam-Webster derives it from botanical, on the pattern of pairs such as chemical and chemist.^[4][5] Random House and Dictionary.com derive it from a clipped form of botanism, a word for botany of Greek origin.^[6][7] Etymonline dates the noun for the science only to the 1690s and derives it from botanic,^[8] which goes back, directly or through French botanique, to Latin botanicus and ultimately to Ancient Greek βοτάνη (botánē, “plant, pasture”).^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A student of or specialist in botany: 1647, in W. Petty's Advice to Hartlib.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1669,^[4] Dictionary.com to 1675–85, Etymonline to the 1680s^[7][8] and the 1989 edition of the OED to before 1682.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its first meaning.^[2][3] Johnson (1755) defined it as one skilled in plants who studies their various species, quoting Woodward.^[12]

Timeline

• 1647 – a student of or specialist in botany.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates it to 1669, and Etymonline to the 1680s.^[4][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A scientist who studies plants; a specialist in botany or one of its branches: The botanist identified three rare ferns in the valley.^[4][2][3]

Related words

• botanica
• botanical
• botanize
• botany

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
6. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.