Etymologically
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interviewer

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 15:30. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈɪntəvjuːə/[1]
  • US: /ˈɪntɚvjuɚ/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English interview + -er, from the verb.[2][3][4] The verb comes from the noun interview, which is from Middle French entrevue (“meeting between two or more people”), the noun use of the feminine past participle of entrevoir (“to see each other”).[2][3] That verb is formed from entre- (“between”) and voir (“to see”), from Latin videō (“to see”).[3] The English noun was remodelled after the prefix inter-.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who interviews another: 1869, in the New York Nation.[2] Etymonline dates the journalistic agent noun to 1868.[3] Dictionary.com gives 1865–70.[4]

Semantic evolution

The noun appeared when the verb interview took on its journalistic sense: questioning a person in order to publish what is said is recorded from 1869, in American English.[3] The OED of 1989 accordingly described the interviewer especially as a journalist who interviews someone to obtain material for publication.[5] With the job interview, recorded from 1845, the word came to be used of the person who questions an applicant;[2] Merriam-Webster also records a clerk who does the first interviews of job applicants and arranges meetings with the employers.[6]

Timeline

  • 1868 – the journalistic agent noun, in Etymonline.[3]
  • 1869 – a person who interviews another, in the Nation (New York).[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A person who interviews someone, as a journalist questioning a public figure for publication: The interviewer asked the senator about the new tax.[5][6][2]
  2. A person who questions an applicant for a job or a place at a college.[2][6]
  3. A clerk who interviews job applicants first and arranges their meetings with the employers.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  5. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster