linguist

[ ling-gwist ]

noun

1. a specialist in linguistics.
2. a person who is skilled in several languages; polyglot.

linguist

/ ˈlɪŋɡwɪst /

noun

1. a person who has the capacity to learn and speak foreign languages
2. a person who studies linguistics
3. the spokesman for a chief

Word History and Origins

Origin of linguist¹

First recorded in 1580–90; from Latin lingu(a) “tongue, speech” + -ist

Word History and Origins

Origin of linguist¹

C16: from Latin lingua tongue

Example Sentences

She started to read the work of linguist and political thinker Noam Chomsky in her spare time.

From Washington Post

“Semantic change” is what linguists call it when the meaning of a word changes over time.

From Washington Post

I recently talked to a gesture linguist to learn how people use their hands in different cultures.

From MIT Technology Review

The team consulted linguists to define the parameters for a “male” and “female” voice and figure out where they overlap.

From MIT Technology Review

That is Steven Pinker, the Harvard psychologist and linguist.

From Freakonomics

Global Linguist Solutions, LLC (GLS) and the U.S. Military thanks you for your service.

From The Daily Beast

But as linguist Mark Liberman notes at Language Log, the president used the word “I” exactly 10 times in that speech.

From The Daily Beast

For example, the creator/writer of Alice in Arabia is Brooke Eikmeier, a former US Army linguist in Arabic.

From The Daily Beast

Utopia for Beginners Joshua Foer, The New Yorker An amateur linguist loses control of the language he invented.

From The Daily Beast

Linguist Geoffrey Nunberg gives the A-word the biography it so richly deserves.

From The Daily Beast

Peter Elmsly, a partner of the celebrated Paul Valliant, and himself an importer of books and no mean critic and linguist, died.

From Project Gutenberg

Bora on April 27, 1852, this prelate was a man of great culture and a distinguished linguist, who had travelled considerably.

From Project Gutenberg

His mother was a highly educated woman, and was careful to make her son an accomplished linguist.

From Project Gutenberg

He was a marvellously alert man, an unusually good linguist, and a cosmopolitan to his finger-tips.

From Project Gutenberg

Edward Lhuyd died; a celebrated antiquary and linguist, and keeper of the Ashmolean museum.

From Project Gutenberg