descriptivist

[dih-skrip-tuh-vist]

noun

1. a writer, teacher, or supporter of descriptive grammar or descriptive linguistics.

adjective

1. of, relating to, or based on descriptive grammar or descriptive linguistics.

Other Word Forms

• descriptivism noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of descriptivist¹

First recorded in 1950–55; descriptive + -ist

Example Sentences

Some descriptivist linguists have argued that criticisms of “bad” grammar found in dialects like African-American Vernacular English perpetuate systemic racism.

Read more on Seattle Times

Linguists these days are mostly descriptivist observers who hover somewhere outside the fickle language peeve fray.

Read more on Slate

To behold a grammatical descriptivist at war with a grammatical prescriptivist who happens to be her twin is truly an uncommon pleasure.

Read more on New York Times

“It seems that English speakers are increasingly finding useful the breadth in meaning and understanding that’s present in the term,” the Merriam-Webster descriptivist Emily Brewster says in an email.

Read more on The Guardian

That end, please: you’re team descriptivist.

Read more on The Guardian