copyist

Etymology

It is formed from English copy + -ist,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} replacing the earlier copist.^[2][6][3] The OED and Merriam-Webster Unabridged treat it as an alteration of that form, brought closer to the verb.^[7][8] The older noun is from Middle French copiste, or Medieval Latin copista,^[7][3][8][6] from French copier^[7] or copiō (“to transcribe”),^[3][2] from Latin cōpia (“abundance, plenty”), which in medieval Latin also meant a transcript.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

One who copies or imitates, especially a transcriber of documents: 1699, in R. Bentley's Dissertation upon the Epistles of Phalaris.^[7] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the sense of a person employed to make copies to 1696,^[8] and Etymonline and Dictionary.com to the 1690s.^[2][5] The Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English say the middle of the 17th century, earlier than any of these.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

The word took over from copist, which the OED records in this sense from 1682 to 1779, and which from 1581 to 1587 was also the name of certain officials in the Ecclesiastical Court.^[7] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives the copying of instrumental scores as its example of the main sense.^[8] The sense of an imitator, sometimes a plagiarist, is present in the OED's first definition,^[7] and Collins and Merriam-Webster Unabridged list it apart.^[9][8] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also records trade uses: a person who makes paper novelties to a pattern, a hand sewer who copies hats, and one who copies or adapts clothing designs.^[8]

Timeline

• 1699 – one who copies or imitates, especially a transcriber of documents.^[7]
• 1779 – last record of the earlier form copist.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who makes written copies, especially for a living; a transcriber: The composer paid a copyist to write out the orchestral parts.^[9][8][7]
2. A person who imitates others; a plagiarist.^[9][8][7]
3. A person who copies or adapts clothing designs, or a hand sewer who copies hats.^[8]

Related words

• copy
• copier
• copious

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins