expert

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈek.spɜːt/, US /ˈek.spɝːt/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English expert,^[2] borrowed from Old French expert, espert “experienced, skilled”,^[3][4][2] and directly from Latin expertus (“tried, proved, known by experience”),^[3][4][5] past participle of experīrī “to try, test”,^[3][4] from ex “out of” and the root of peritus “experienced”,^[3] from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to try, risk”).^[3] It is related to experience and experiment.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Having experience of, experienced in: about 1374 in the OED, about 1385 in Barnhart, in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde;^[6][4] skilful: about 1374 in the OED, about 1384 in Barnhart, in the Wycliffe Bible.^[6][4]

Semantic evolution

The noun, a person wise through experience, is from before 1420, in Lydgate's Troy Book,^[4][3] but it reappears only in 1825,^[4][6] in the legal sense of a person whose special knowledge allows him to testify to matters of opinion in court,^[3][6] probably as a conversion of the English adjective rather than from French.^[4] Merriam-Webster dates the noun from 1535.^[2] A handwriting expert is from 1858,^[6] and in computing the expert system is from 1977.^[6] Expertise is from 1868, in Charles Reade's Foul Play, borrowed from French expertise “expert appraisal”.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1374 – experienced, skilled.^[6]
• a. 1420 – noun, a person wise through experience.^[4]
• 1825 – noun, an expert witness.^[4][6]
• 1868 – expertise.^[4]
• 1977 – expert system.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A person with a high degree of skill or knowledge in a subject.
2. The highest grade in marksmanship, or a person who has reached it.

Adjective

1. Having or showing great skill or knowledge from experience or training.

Word family

• expertly
• expertness
• expertism
• expertize
• unexpert
• expert witness
• expert system

Related words

• experience
• experiment
• expertise
• peril

Usage notes

The adjective tends to be stressed on the second syllable and the noun on the first.^[3]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press