Linguist

Linguist

Noun · /ˈlɪŋ.ɡwɪst/

Definition

A person who studies linguistics or is skilled in languages; an expert in one or more foreign languages; a specialist in the scientific study of language.

Origin

From Latin lingua (tongue, language) + -ist (a suffix denoting a practitioner or specialist). Latin lingua, from Old Latin dingua, is cognate with Old English tunge (tongue) and Greek glōssa. The word linguist appeared in English in the 16th century initially meaning someone skilled in languages, with the academic sense of a linguistics scholar developing in the 19th century.