What do you call a person who is expert in English?

HajiSahib

HajiSahib

Banned
Punjabi/Urdu - Pakistan
A person who is expert in physics, we call them "physicist".
A person who is expert in chemistry, we call them "chemist".
A person who is expert in biology, we call them "biologist".
A person who is expert in mathematics, we call them "mathematician".

What do we call a person who is expert in English?

Englishist Or Englishtician? :D


Thank you.
 
    • I am so much amazed why English doesn't have a usual name for the person who's expert in it, :rolleyes::rolleyes::(:(though it has for the ones who're expert in physics, chemistry, biology etc.
     
    An expert in English is meaningless to me. It's a rather vague expression and has no context.

    I might say a fluent English speaker.

    There seems to be a difference between expert at something and an expert in something.
     
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    HajiSahib said:
    A person who is expert in physics, we call them "physicist".
    A person who is expert in chemistry, we call them "chemist".
    A person who is expert in biology, we call them "biologist".
    A person who is expert in mathematics, we call them "mathematician".

    What do we call a person who is expert in English?

    Englishist Or Englishtician? :D


    Thank you.
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    What you need is the suffix -ist, which means "one who does;" that's the same suffix that appears in chemist, biologist, and physicist. (The suffix -an is also used for "one who does," and that's how we get mathematician.) And since by "English" you mean, I suppose, English language, then linguist is what you need. If you have to be more specific, go with "English linguist." Anglicist also works (it's got the same suffix), but it's rare. Given that there's no Higher Authority granting approval on the use of suffixes, some people actually use the term "Englishist" (attaching -ist to "English") in a broad sense, covering not just grammar but also literature (but I wouldn't call "Englishist" a widely used term).
     
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    The problem is that no one knows just what you mean by "expert in English". Do you mean:
    - a good speaker
    - a good writer
    - a linguist
    - a grammarian
    - a historian of language
    or something else?
     
    I would disagree with the original assertion.

    The word "chemist" does not really mean a person who is an "expert in chemistry."

    The definition that applies here is "a person studying, trained in, or engaged in chemistry" - or a scientist specializing in chemistry. Now, quite often it is a requirement of such a job that the person be an expert in chemistry, but simply being an expert in chemistry does not always make the person a chemist. If I got excellent grades in chemistry classes in high school, for example, and then read a lot of books about it until I was very knowledgeable, and even co-wrote a high school chemistry textbook that was highly regarded - but not have done a single actual chemical experiment or process.... I would then be an expert in chemistry, but I would not be a chemist.

    And, also, you can be a chemist without being an expert in chemistry. If you are a student, and know a little chemistry, and get a job at a lab doing fairly simple chemical processing, you are a chemist - and not an expert. These terms are actually used for practitioners, not experts.

    In some cases it is more clear. The word "artist" does not mean "an art expert" -- an artist is an art practitioner. An art expert may be an art historian, or an art appraiser, or a museum curator, or an art critic, or any number of practices that don't require also being an artist.

    So an expert in English does not fall parallel to the examples; and as those above have stated, an expert in English can use that expertise in a number of practices: linguistics, writing, speech, historical analysis, etc.
     
    Truffula said:
    So an expert in English does not fall parallel to the examples; and as those above have stated, an expert in English can use that expertise in a number of practices: linguistics, writing, speech, historical analysis, etc.
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    :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
    And expertise in one area, does not necessarily cross over to another.
     
    HajiSahib said:
    A person who is expert in chemistry, we call them "chemist".
    Click to expand...

    That is incorrect.

    The term "Chemist" means "someone who does chemistry as their job". It does not mean "an expert in Chemistry".

    For example, a person whose job is teaching Chemistry in High School or in College must be an expert in Chemistry. But in English, they are not called "a chemist". Similarly, there are thousands of people who study Chemistry as their "major" (main subject) in college, and after years of study, they are experts in Chemistry. We do not call them "chemists".

    The same is true for all the other "-ist"s.
     
    ewie said:
    The only language I can think of that has such a term is Latin: Latinist:confused:
    Click to expand...

    Arabist ?

    ewie said:
    (I'd like to propose that a person gifted in Urdu should be called well-urducated)
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    (It might be interesting to create names for experts in other languages - ewie might be someone skilled in Ewe; though maybe it would be otiose now that minority languages are disappearing - Ga sounds as if it's half-way to oblivion, and Tatar, I think, is on the way out.)
     
    lentulax said:
    Arabist ?
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    But is an Arabist necessarily an expert in the language per se, or perhaps rather in the cultures, literatures, etc. of Arabic-speaking countries?

    Same question for "Anglicist" (which I've never heard).

    I ask because a Hispanist is generally an expert in the culture, literature, etc. of Spain (who of course probably speaks fluent Spanish, but the language may not be his/her main focus).
     
    Hildy1 said:
    The problem is that no one knows just what you mean by "expert in English". Do you mean:
    - a good speaker
    - a good writer
    - a linguist
    - a grammarian
    - a historian of language
    or something else?
    Click to expand...
    Exactly! Expert in English can mean so many things. Anglicist means someone who is in the field of English Studies (which could include English linguistics, English culture and so on) and excludes good writers in English or fluent speakers of English.
     
    dojibear said:
    That is incorrect.

    The term "Chemist" means "someone who does chemistry as their job". It does not mean "an expert in Chemistry".
    Click to expand...
    But that is also wrong. An academic with expertise in chemistry is a chemist, just as Stephen Hawking, with expertise in astrophysics, was an astrophysicist. But the word "chemist" has other meanings including someone who "does chemistry" and, in BE at least, a person who dispenses medicines.

    The OP is correct in saying that the words he listed describe people with expertise. However, some have additional meanings, and for many areas of expertise there is no single-word descriptor.
     
    ewie said:
    Arabist:tick:
    Arabicist:cross:
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    Point taken - but 'Arabicist' does exist ; it is , I gather, a widely-used standard term in the field of linguistics (I dare say along with many similar formulations such as the above-mentioned 'Anglicist'), but also in academic discourse generally , e.g. in W. Ann McDougall's 'The View from Awdaghust' : 'The use of these sources for the non-Arabicist historian has been greatly facilitated by the recent publication of edited French and English translations of accounts dealing with West Africa'; and in referring to Arabic language experts : 'the renowned Arabicist Albert Hourani', 'the great Arabicist Francesco Gabrieli',etc. Since these words exist, and obviously fill the gap noted by HajiSahib, perhaps we ought to use them more often ; henceforth, I shall introduce them into my conversation at every available opportunity.
     
    Andygc said:
    But that is also wrong. An academic with expertise in chemistry is a chemist, just as Stephen Hawking, with expertise in astrophysics, was an astrophysicist. But the word "chemist" has other meanings including someone who "does chemistry" and, in BE at least, a person who dispenses medicines.

    The OP is correct in saying that the words he listed describe people with expertise. However, some have additional meanings, and for many areas of expertise there is no single-word descriptor.
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    No... as dojibear said in post #18 and I said in post #15 , academics teaching chemistry as a subject they are expert in but not practicing chemistry are not called chemists, they are called chemistry professors or chemistry teachers or chemistry instructors.

    In the current university system of the USA (and Europe?) chemistry professors are required to also be chemists (they must research in their field) but that does not mean they are chemists because they are chemistry experts; they are chemists as well as teachers of chemistry and experts in chemistry in order to keep their jobs because it is a rule of the job. In high school, this is not the rule, and most high school chemistry teachers are not chemists. But they are still mostly chemistry experts nevertheless.
     
    dojibear said:
    That is incorrect.

    The term "Chemist" means "someone who does chemistry as their job". It does not mean "an expert in Chemistry".

    For example, a person whose job is teaching Chemistry in High School or in College must be an expert in Chemistry. But in English, they are not called "a chemist". Similarly, there are thousands of people who study Chemistry as their "major" (main subject) in college, and after years of study, they are experts in Chemistry. We do not call them "chemists".

    The same is true for all the other "-ist"s.
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    I agree. A linguist is someone whose field of work is language. A scientist is someone whose field of work is science. A sub-field would be a chemist. A sub-field of a linguist might be an English linguist.

    A glottologist studies language. A polyglot speaks several, but perhaps not at a high level of proficiency. Personally I'm a low order monoglot.:D
     
    Truffula said:
    No... as dojibear said in post #18 and I said in post #15 , academics teaching chemistry as a subject they are expert in but not practicing chemistry are not called chemists, they are called chemistry professors or chemistry teachers or chemistry instructors.
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    Where did I say "teaching"? You may call them what you like if your world view does not extend beyond American universities, but an expert in chemistry engaged in research is a chemist, just as a physics researcher is a physicist. If a chemistry professor is not a chemist, what is he? In British universities the teaching staff also undertake research. They teach and practise chemistry and are, undoubtedly, "chemists". Are you seriously suggesting that American academics do not undertake research - that they do not practise chemistry?
     
    My sister was a bacteriologist. She designed medicines. I suppose we should have referred to her as a "druggist"?

    The more we discuss these labels the less happy I am with them. I think it is always better to use more specific descriptors. Labels are shorthand for the lazy.
     
    There was a teacher at school who I'm sure was an expert. Everyone called him the English master.:D
     
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    Packard - As a bacteriologist who designed medicines, presumably she hypothesized about and then examined the effect of those medicines on bacteria, hence she practiced bacteriology and was a bacteriologist.

    "Druggist" usually means pharmacist.

    Andygc - you said "academic," I pointed out that the system in British and American universities where academics always do research isn't a universal law, giving high school teaching as a counterexample, and that it is the practice of the research rather than the being an expert that is referred to when you call someone a "chemist."
     
    GreenWhiteBlue said:
    There is also "Hebraist", for a scholar of Hebrew.
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    That makes three words I never knew before this thread: Anglicist, Arabicist, Hebraist:)
    I've never met a Hebrew or Arabic expert, but have met plenty of folk (who claimed to be) expert in English, so have no excuse for not knowing that one.*

    *Apart from the fact that it's not a word in general use.
     
    Truffula,
    Truffula said:
    The word "chemist" does not really mean a person who is an "expert in chemistry."
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    I cannot speak for AE, but in BE, as attested in more than one dictionary, the primary meaning of "chemist" is
    A person who engages in the practice or study of chemistry or (in early use) alchemy; a person who makes chemical investigations; an expert or specialist in chemistry.
    Click to expand...
    That is given by the OED in its recently updated 3rd Edition, with citations ranging from 1550 to 2004. There are similar definitions in other dictionaries, including Random House and Collins here in the Wordreference dictionary. In the form of English that I and several million others speak, a professor of chemistry is a chemist. And he would be so even in the unlikely case that he did not undertake research, by being an expert or specialist in chemistry.
     
    HajiSahib said:
    A person who is expert in physics, we call them "physicist".
    A person who is expert in chemistry, we call them "chemist".
    A person who is expert in biology, we call them "biologist".
    A person who is expert in mathematics, we call them "mathematician".

    What do we call a person who is expert in English?

    Englishist Or Englishtician? :D


    Thank you.
    Click to expand...

    Ciao!

    "Englishpert"? or "Expenglish"?:

    "He/She is an Englishpert" - "He/She is an Expenglish"

    :cool:
     
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