Other forms: receptionists
A receptionist is the person at the front desk who greets visitors and answers the phone. The hotel receptionist, ask the receptionist, a doctor's receptionist.
The job is the front door of an organisation, and in a hotel or a surgery the receptionist controls access, appointments and most of what actually happens. Reception is both the desk and the area around it. Note that a reception is also a formal party — a wedding reception — and that reception in the signal sense means how well a radio or phone is receiving.
1nounreceptionistThe person at a front desk who greets visitors and answers the phone.
“The receptionist knew every patient by name.”
receptionist is a front-desk worker.
The word is reception plus -ist, from Latin recipere, to receive. Receive, recipe and receipt are the same verb, and a recipe was originally an instruction beginning take.
Proto-Indo-European
*keh₂p-
Latin
receptiō — the act of receiving; reception
Middle French
reception
Middle English
recepcion,reception
English
reception
English, today
receptionist
Built from
Recorded since 1901, derived from reception + -ist. reception comes from Middle English recepcion,reception, from Middle French reception, from Latin receptiō (“the act of receiving; reception”), from recipiō (“receive”), from re- (“back”) + capiō (“to hold”). Equivalent to receive + tion.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA