Other forms: linguists
A linguist is somebody skilled in languages or who studies them. A gifted linguist, a forensic linguist, work as a linguist.
The two senses cause constant confusion: an academic linguist studies how language works and need not speak many, and a good linguist in the everyday sense speaks several. Most academic linguists have to explain this at every party.
1nounlinguistSomebody skilled in languages or who studies them.
“As a linguist, he can switch between French, Arabic and Russian with ease.”
linguist is a person.
Latin lingua, a tongue or language, plus -ist. Language and linguine come from the same root.
Latin
lingua — language
English, today
linguist
From lingua + -ist. Latin lingua (“language”) + -ist.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA