linguister
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
Probably from Portuguese lingüista (“linguist”) reinterpreted as linguist + -er.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
linguister (plural linguisters)
- (archaic, historical) An interpreter, especially one interpreting between European and non-European languages in colonial contexts. [17th–19th c.]
- 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,[1]
- […] the Portuguese very privatly gives information […] that it [the murder] 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,[2]
- Mr. Coniers: What did you take from this ship?
- [Robert] Brad[inham]: 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[3], 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[4], London: S. Low, Son, and Marston, page 196:
- Though he [Geoffrey Chaucer] 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[5], 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
- 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,[1]
- (archaic, historical, by extension) In West and Central Africa, a bi- or multilingual agent or broker facilitating trade between Europeans and non-Europeans. [18th–19th c.]
- 1887, Richard Edward Dennett, chapter 4, in Seven Years Among the Fjort: Being and English Trader’s Experiences in the Congo District[6], 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[7], 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.