anthropologist
/ˌænθrəˈpɑːlədʒɪst/noun
A scholar who studies humans and their societies
From Greek anthropo- (human).
Lineage
anthropo-
-logy
-ist
The story
Picture a scholar trying to take in the entire human animal—bones, beliefs, languages, marriage rules, and lunch habits—and you have an anthropologist. The first half comes from Greek ἄνθρωπος, “human,” while -logy means a study or account; together they produced anthropology, recorded in English in the 1590s. Then English attached -ist, a suffix that traveled from Greek -ιστής through Latin -ista and Old French -iste, essentially meaning “the person who does this.” By 1798, anthropologist was established in English, although German had used the form as early as 1783. The word is therefore a miniature career description: “the person devoted to the study of humans”—a human being professionally investigating humanity, including the strange creature in the mirror.
Modern usage
Humorously, an elderly person who studies ants; also someone who can pronounce complex hominin names but mispronounces ordinary words.
- Heard in
- online humor · slang
Words from the same roots
anthropo- · Ancient Greek, ‘human, mankind’
Derivedanthropology, anthropocentric, anthropomorphic, misanthrope, philanthropy
-logy · Ancient Greek, ‘study, account, or discourse’
Derivedbiology, geology, psychology, philology, etymology, theology
-ist · Ancient Greek, through Latin and French, ‘one who practices, makes, or adheres to something’
Derivedabolitionist, anarchist, imperialist, idealist, linguist, scientist
Sources
- Etymonlineanthropologist, anthropology, -ist, rite, na-dene, nordic, endogamy
- Urban Dictionaryanthropologist
- Wikipediaanthropologist
- Wiktionaryanthropologist, anthropology, -ist