linguist

Etymology

It is formed from Latin lingua (“tongue, language”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} with the suffix -ist, itself of Greek origin, which makes it a hybrid.^[3][5][2][8] The Latin noun is from Proto-Indo-European *dnghu- (“tongue”),^[3] written *dghū- in the American Heritage Dictionary.^[6] Weekley explains it as a Sabine form of Old Latin dingua, and as cognate with tongue.^[9] The OED compares German Linguist (end of the 16th century), Swedish lingvist (1621) and French linguiste (1668 or earlier).^[2] Older or parallel words for such a person were languager (1560s) and linguister (1640s).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person skilled in foreign languages: 1582, in a margin of the Rheims Bible at 1 Corinthians 14.^[2] The revised OED is earlier than Barnhart's 1588 and Merriam-Webster Unabridged's 1591;^[4][8] Etymonline gives the 1580s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant someone who commands several tongues, which Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Collins still list first,^[8][10] and which is the only sense in Johnson (1755), who defined it as a man skilful in languages.^[11] Around it grew several senses from the plain meaning of lingua: a person who spoke freely and well, or merely a great deal (late 16th to late 17th century),^[12][3][2] and in one early record a bird that imitates speech.^[2] An interpreter was a linguist from 1612, a use that is now chiefly American according to the OED and rare or obsolete according to the Shorter Oxford.^[2][12] The older name for a go-between with the Natives of colonial New England was linguister.^[3] The scholarly sense, a student of language, is recorded from 1605, in Camden,^[2] though Barnhart first finds it in 1641 and Etymonline in the 1640s.^[4][3] The OED's definition moves with the subject, from language to, later, linguistics, a noun recorded from 1847;^[2][4] the same sense in German, from 1801, is now the only one there.^[2] Among the Akan peoples of West Africa, from 1819, a linguist is the official who speaks for a chief.^[2][10] Green's Dictionary of Slang records a clipped slang use, for a cunnilinguist, from 1966.^[13]

Timeline

• 1582 – a person skilled in foreign languages.^[2]
• before 1593 – a bird that imitates speech (rare, until 1599).^[2]
• 1605 – a student of or expert in language.^[2]
• 1607 – as an adjective, skilled in languages (until 1612).^[2]
• 1612 – a fluent or persuasive speaker (now obsolete).^[2]
• 1612 – an interpreter or translator.^[2]
• before 1687 – a native speaker of a particular language (rare, now obsolete).^[2]
• 1819 – an official who speaks on behalf of an Akan chief.^[2]
• 1966 – slang, a cunnilinguist.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who is skilled in foreign languages and speaks several of them: As a gifted linguist, she read Arabic and Finnish for pleasure.^{[10][8][6][2]}
2. A specialist in or student of linguistics.^{[10][8][6][2]}
3. An interpreter or translator, now chiefly in the United States.^[2][12]
4. In West Africa, especially Ghana, the official spokesman of a chief.^[10][2]
5. (slang) A cunnilinguist.^[13]
6. (obsolete, 1612–91) A fluent or persuasive speaker.^[2][12]

Word family

• linguistic
• linguistics

Related words

• lingua
• language
• linguister
• tongue
• lingual

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com