Where does “linguist” come from?

Linguist comes from English -ist, Latin -ista, and Proto-Indo-European -yéti, a suffix forming agent nouns from verbal roots denoting one who performs an action.

linguist (English): One who studies linguistics; A person skilled in...

Definitions

  1. One who studies linguistics; A person skilled in...

Ancestry of “linguist”, 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 “linguist

Every word from Proto-Hellenic -tāsEvery word from English -istEvery word from Ancient Greek -τής