essayist
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of essayist
Explanation
Someone who writes short, literary nonfiction is an essayist. If you love penning political manifestos or book reviews, you might want to try being a published essayist. Anyone who writes short pieces of nonfiction can describe themselves as an essayist, especially if those essays get published in journals or on websites. All you need to do to become an essayist is polish your writing skills and find a topic you're really interested in — then start writing essays! Essayist is from essay and its Latin root exigere, "try out or test."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Essayist that she is, Rebecca Solnit pursues her subjects down multiple pathways of thought, feeling, memory and experience, aided by historical research and the intuitive literary hunch, as needed.
From New York Times • Oct. 19, 2021
Essayist and author DJ Waldie has some ideas about why Parkinson doesn't have the same name recognition.
From BBC • Jul. 4, 2018
Essayist Robbie Shell writes in The Wall Street Journal about giving up the relentless pursuit for more and finding contentment in retirement.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 23, 2018
Essayist Phillip Lopate, reviewing the book in the New York Times, described Mr. McPherson as one of the genre’s “most serious, engaging” practitioners.
From Washington Post • Jul. 28, 2016
The victory may be won far more easily than the rather indolent and timid Essayist ever imagined.
From The Mystic Will A Method of Developing and Strengthening the Faculties of the Mind, through the Awakened Will, by a Simple, Scientific Process Possible to Any Person of Ordinary Intelligence by Leland, Charles Godfrey
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
