Where does “columnist” come from?

Columnist comes from English column plus the suffix -ista from Latin, -ιστής from Ancient Greek, ultimately derived from Latin columna, Latin columen, Proto-Italic kolamen, and Proto-Indo-European kelH-.

columnist (English): A regular writer of a column, such as in a...

Definitions

  1. A regular writer of a column, such as in a...

Ancestry of “columnist”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1English-istAdded to words to form nouns denoting
2Old French-iste—
3Latin-ista-ist; one who practises or believes
4Ancient Greek-ιστήςAlternative form of -τής; -ist
5Ancient Greek-τήςAppended to verbs to form agent nouns
6Proto-Hellenic-tās—

Words derived from “columnist”

Every word from Proto-Hellenic -tās →Every word from English -ist →Every word from Ancient Greek -τής →