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linguist - 4 dictionary results

lin⋅guist

[ling-gwist]
–noun
1. a specialist in linguistics.
2. a person who is skilled in several languages; polyglot.

Origin:
1580–90; < L lingu(a) tongue, speech + -ist
lin·guist   (lĭng'gwĭst)   
n.  
  1. A person who speaks several languages fluently.
  2. A specialist in linguistics.

[Latin lingua, language; see dghū- in Indo-European roots + -ist.]

Linguist

Lin"guist\ (l[i^][ng]"gw[i^]st), n. [L. lingua tongue, speech, language: cf. F. linguiste.]

1. A master of the use of language; a talker. [Obs.]

I'll dispute with him; He's a rare linguist. --J. Webster.

2. A person skilled in languages.

There too were Gibbon, the greatest historian, and Jones, the greatest linguist, of the age. --Macaulay.
Language Translation for : linguist
Spanish: lingüista,
German: der, *die Linguist(in),
Japanese: 外国語に通じた人

linguist 
1588, "a master of language, one who uses his tongue freely," from L. lingua "language, tongue" (see lingual). Meaning "a student of language" first attested 1641. Linguistics "the science of languages" is from 1847. The use of linguistic to mean "of or pertaining to language or languages" is "hardly justifiable etymologically," according to OED, but "has arisen because lingual suggests irrelevant associations."
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