Where does “publicist” come from?

Publicist comes from French publiciste, formed with the French agent suffix -iste from Latin -ista, ultimately derived from Latin populus meaning "people" with Proto-Indo-European roots.

publicist (English): A person whose job is to publicize information or...

Definitions

  1. A person whose job is to publicize information or...

Ancestry of “publicist”, step by step

publicist traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via French publiciste

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Frenchpublicistepublicist; advertising executive
2French-iste-ist; -istic
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

via Latin pūblicum

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Latinpūblicumstate property
Every word from Proto-Hellenic -tāsEvery word from Ancient Greek -τήςEvery word from French -iste