Where does “geologist” come from?

Geologist comes from English geology combined with the Latin agentive suffix -ista, from Ancient Greek gē (earth) and -logia (study of), derived from logos (word, reasoning) and legō (to speak), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European leǵ-.

geologist (English): A person who is skilled at geology

Definitions

  1. A person who is skilled at geology

Ancestry of “geologist”, 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 “geologist”

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