Other forms: specialists
A specialist is a doctor who is an expert in one particular area of medicine. See a specialist, referred to a specialist, a heart specialist.
In Britain you generally reach one by referral from a general practitioner, and consultant is the formal hospital title. Outside medicine, a specialist is an expert in any narrow field — a specialist in eighteenth-century glass — and as an adjective it means for that field: specialist equipment, a specialist shop. Note specialise and speciality, which in American English is specialty.
1nounspecialistA doctor expert in one area of medicine.
“My doctor referred me to a heart specialist at the hospital.”
2nounnarrowAn expert in a narrow field.
“She's a specialist in rare childhood diseases, so doctors send her the hardest cases.”
specialist is an expert.
The word is special plus -ist, from Latin specialis, belonging to a particular kind, from species. A specialist is somebody who has narrowed to one kind, which is exactly what the word says.
French
spécialiste
English, today
specialist
French spécialiste, equivalent to special + -ist.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA