encyclopedist

Or en·cy·clo·pae·dist

[en-sahy-kluh-pee-dist]

noun

1. a compiler of or contributor to an encyclopedia.

2. (often initial capital letter),  one of the collaborators on the French Encyclopedia.

encyclopedist

/ ɛnˌsaɪkləʊˈpiːdɪst /

noun

1. a person who compiles or contributes to an encyclopedia

Other Word Forms

• encyclopedism noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of encyclopedist¹

First recorded in 1645–55; encycloped(ia) + -ist

Example Sentences

Du Bois-Reymond was once lauded as “the foremost naturalist of Europe,” “the last of the encyclopedists,” and “one of the greatest scientists Germany ever produced.”

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Until the moment, in the late seventeen-forties, when he was asked to undertake the Encyclopédie, Denis Diderot was mainly a figure of the low Enlightenment, and might have seemed a quite improbable encyclopedist.

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His robot encyclopedist spoke in magnetic poetry phrases, which occasionally yielded uncanny reproductions of Plinian syntax but often fell flat.

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Ancient encyclopedists, monks, theologians: the forgers of the chapter.

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The classical tradition in the beginning was affected by the mistaken theories of medieval encyclopedists and by humanistic misinterpretations of the classics.

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