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expert

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 23:23. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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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

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