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English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Probably from Portuguese lingüista (“linguist”) reinterpreted as linguist + -er.
Pronunciation
Noun
linguister (plural linguisters)
- (archaic, historical) An interpreter, especially one interpreting between European and non-European languages in colonial contexts.
- 1666, letter from William Acworth, in Siam, to George Oxenden of the British East India Company, cited in John Anderson, English Intercourse with Siam in the Seventeenth Century, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1890, p. 105,
- the Portuguese very privatly gives information that it was done by one of my people and by my order this young man whom they accused was my linguister
- 1701, trial of William Kidd, in Carrie J. Harris (ed.), State Trials of Mary, Queen of Scots, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Captain William Kidd, Chicago: Callaghan, 1899, p. 183,
- Mr. Coniers: What did you take from this ship?
- Brad: Capt. Kidd took out Parker, and a Portuguese for a Linguister.
- Mr. Coniers: A Linguister, What do you mean by that?
- Brad.: An interpreter;
1827, James Fenimore Cooper, chapter 26, in The Prairie, New York: Stringer & Townsend, published 1856, page 385:“ […] He can talk to the Pawnee, and the Konza, and the Omawhaw, and he can talk to his own people.” ¶ “Ay, there are linguisters in the settlements that can do still more. But what profits it all? The Master of Life has an ear for every language!”
1871, James Russell Lowell, “Chaucer”, in My Study Windows, London: S. Low, Son, and Marston, page 196:Though he did not and could not create our language (for he who writes to be read does not write for linguisters), yet it is true that he first made it easy […]
2011, Barry Unsworth, chapter 8, in The Quality of Mercy, New York: Nan A. Talese, page 69:the linguister, whose work it is to make clear to his fellow Africans the wishes and commands of officers and crew
- (archaic, historical, by extension) In West and Central Africa, a bi- or multilingual agent or broker facilitating trade between Europeans and non-Europeans.
1887, Richard Edward Dennett, chapter 4, in Seven Years Among the Fjort: Being and English Trader’s Experiences in the Congo District, London: S. Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, pages 80–81:One day a linguister, a native commission agent, arrived in a trading canoe, and stated that […] a prince some way up the river […] had [said] […] that if I sent him five longs and five gallons of rum he would […] let my trade pass.
1991, Philip D. Curtin, chapter 3, in The Tropical Atlantic in the Age of the Slave Trade, Washington, DC: American Historical Association, page 34:A “chief linguister” went along in order to act as a broker for the ship’s captain or supercargo.