▪ I. linguist
(ˈlɪŋgwɪst)
[f. L. lingua tongue, language + -ist. Cf. F. linguiste (from 17th c.).]
1. a. One who is skilled in the use of languages; one who is master of other tongues besides his own. (Often with adj. indicating the degree or extent of the person's skill.)
| 1591 Shakes. Two Gent. iv. i. 57 Seeing you are beautifide With goodly shape; and by your owne report A Linguist. 1593 G. Harvey Pierce's Super. Answ. Lett. **3 b, Be thou Iohn, the many-tongued Linguist, like Andrewes, or the curious Intelligencer, like Bodley. 1599 Thynne Animadv. 31 Vnleste a manne be a good saxoniste, frenche, and Italyane linguiste. 1602 Boyle in Lismore Papers Ser. ii. (1887) I. 39 A generall Linguist and partycular so in insight in the Ierish tungue. 1604 Marston Malcontent i. i, I study languages. Who doost thinke to be the best linguist of our age? 1673 Hickeringill Gregory Father Greybeard 256 Clean Latin style..pencill'd whether by himself or any other linguist. 1678 Wanley Wond. Lit. World v. i. §89. 467/1 The Golden Bull..requires Emperours to be Good Linguists to confer themselves with Embassadours. 1715 M. Davies Athen. Brit. i. 1 The great Linguist, John Minsheu. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xiii. III. 276 He was a linguist, a mathematician, and a poet. 1859 Max Müller Sci. Lang. (1862) 24 And here I must protest..against the supposition that the student of language must necessarily be a great linguist. 1867 M. E. Herbert Cradle L. iii. 81 He is..a wonderful linguist, speaking not only Hebrew and Greek, but most of the Arabian dialects. |
| transf. 1604 Drayton Owl 47 Each Sylvan sound I truly understood, Become a perfect Linguist of the Wood. |
¶ b. One who speaks a (specified) language.
| 1672 Petty Pol. Anat. xiii. Tracts (1769) 371 All the names of artificial things brought into use, since the empire of these linguists ceased, are expressed in the language of their conquerors. |
2. A student of language; a philologist.
| 1641 Wilkins Mercury iii. (1707) 12 Many of the other [words]..are of such secret Sense, as I think no Linguist can discover. 1695 J. Edwards Perfect. Script. 3 Here linguists and philologists may find that which is to be found no where else. 1748 Hartley Observ. Man i. iii. §1. 320 A Light in which Grammarians and Linguists alone consider Words. 1817 J. Evans Excurs. Windsor, etc. 171 And what will be curious to the linguist, here are the Iliad and Odyssey, the very books from which Pope made his translation. 1922 O. Jespersen Lang. 64, I think I am in accordance with a growing number of scholars in England and America if I..apply the word ‘linguist’ by itself to the scientific student of language (or of languages). 1940 Amer. Speech XV. 187 The Handbook [of the Linguistic Geography of New England]..seems to suggest that American linguists are naïve. 1964 R. H. Robins Gen. Ling. 2 The general linguist, in the sense of the specialist or the student concerned with general linguistics. 1966 M. R. D. Foot SOE in France viii. 212 He was a young linguist, a research student at Manchester University. 1966 New Statesman 11 Nov. 701/1 One or two of my friends even abandoned literature altogether and became fully fledged philologists—‘linguists’, as my companion at dinner would have said. 1973 A. P. Sorensen in D. R. Gross Peoples & Cultures of Native S. Amer. 331 Some linguists wondered..whether the comparative method could or even should be applied to American Indian languages at all. |
† 3. An interpreter. Obs. (Cf. linguister.)
‘Formerly much used in the East. It long survived in China, and is there perhaps not yet obsolete’ (Yule).
| 1711 C. Lockyer Trade India 104 Get it translated without your Linguists Knowledge. 1742 C. Middleton in A. Dobbs Hudson's Bay (1744) 192 The Southern Indian, who was Linguist for the Northern ones, returned with the Boat. 1745 P. Thomas Jrnl. Anson's Voy. 300 This Evening came..a Chinese Interpreter or Linguist. 1780 Ann. Reg. 204 The persons who acted as linguist, surgeon, and surgeon's mate. 1843 Prescott Mexico (1850) I. 251 Marina..made herself so far mistress of the Castilian as to supersede the necessity of any other linguist. 1882 ‘Fan Kwae’ at Canton 50 Other Chinese were closely allied to the foreign community as ‘Linguists’... They were appointed by the Hoppo to act as interpreters. |
† 4. One who uses his tongue freely or knows how to talk; a master of language. Obs.
| 1588 T. Harriot Virginia (Cent.), Artamockes, the linguist, a bird that imitateth and useth the sounds and tones of almost all the birds in the countrie. 1599 T. M[oufet] Silkwormes 43 All linguists [marg. Pies, parrats, stares, &c.] eke that beg what hart would craue Selling your tongues for euery trifle seene As almonds, nuttes [etc.]. 1612 Webster White Devil v. i, Ile dispute with him. Hee's a rare linguist. 1691 Wood Ath. Oxon. I. 374 Richard Martin..was a plausible Linguist, and eminent for Speeches spoken in Parliaments. |
5. attrib. or appositive, as linguist-anthropologist, linguist-philologist, linguist-reader.
| 1951 S. F. Nadel Found. Social Anthropol. 46 The ‘virtuosity’ of the linguist-anthropologist..is only the fullest preparation for his task. 1960 Amer. Speech XXXV. 217 In a treatment of specific historical changes of morphemes and phonemes the linguist-philologist should attempt to recapture what actually happened. 1964 Language XL. 203 A sample passage from a 1956 article by Starkweather is enough to boggle the unprepared linguist-reader. |
▪ II. † ˈlinguist, ˈlinguished, ppl. a. Obs.
[app. evolved from a misunderstanding of prec. (perh. in the phrase ‘the best linguist’), the ending being taken for that of a pa. pple.]
Skilled in languages, ‘languaged’.
| 1607 Breton Murmurer (Grosart) 7/1 So profoundly read in the rules of the best learning, and so well Linguist in the most necessary Languages. 1630 J. Taylor (Water P.) Elegy Prince Henry Wks. ii. 336/1 Mean time she [my Muse] 'mongst the linguish'd Poets throngs, Although she want the helpe of Forraigne tongs. 1632 Lithgow Trav. x. 499 They are..delicately linguishd, the most part of them, being brought vp in France or Italy. |