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

“The effort is praiseworthy, but so excessively tardy that it is perfectly useless,” a collective of linguists wrote in the Liberation newspaper on Thursday.

From BBC

I'm a linguist who studies "word of mouth," or what people tell each other about their experiences.

From Salon

While living in Hawaii in 2004 he took a job at the FBI's Honolulu office as a contract linguist.

From BBC

"Interestingly, low scoring essays showed the highest level of complexity in finite adverbial dependent clauses," the linguist writes in her paper.

From Science Daily

Starting in the 1960s, Noam Chomsky, a linguist at M.I.T., argued that we use language for reasoning and other forms of thought.

From New York Times