Timeline for Whats the difference between "-ist" and "-er"
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
17 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 7, 2018 at 1:22 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/StackEnglish/status/993299913801953280 | ||
| Apr 7, 2018 at 18:38 | answer | added | John | timeline score: 0 | |
| Mar 27, 2015 at 22:33 | comment | added | Parthian Shot | Well, I wouldn't know; I hardly know -er! ...I'll show myself out. | |
| Mar 27, 2015 at 14:59 | vote | accept | multigoodverse | ||
| Mar 27, 2015 at 14:18 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | @Ardit: I take your point, but note that if I were to refer to, say, a fumblist (from essentially Germanic fumble), you'd probably understand that to mean one who endorses fumbling, rather than necessarily performs the action himself. That's to say, -ist as a "productive suffix" today is usually more about supporting (a cause or attitude) than actually doing it. | |
| Mar 27, 2015 at 14:07 | answer | added | Yohann V. | timeline score: 3 | |
| Mar 27, 2015 at 13:52 | comment | added | multigoodverse | @FumbleFingers, I referred to as professions to the example words only. In general, I said they are used to name a person that does an action. Regarding racist, and racer - that is a special case - I wouldn't take much notice of that. Race (as in running), and race (as in human race) just happen to be homonyms. The former comes from the Germanic languages, and the later from Middle French etymonline.com/index.php?term=race | |
| Mar 27, 2015 at 13:37 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | I wouldn't take too much notice of the "professions" aspect. It certainly doesn't apply to rapist, for example. On the other hand, consider racist vs racer. | |
| Mar 27, 2015 at 13:35 | history | edited | multigoodverse | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Mar 27, 2015 at 13:32 | comment | added | multigoodverse | @PeterShor: your last comment answers my question. Regarding your previous comment: I asked the French, but they told me to ask the Romans. | |
| Mar 27, 2015 at 13:31 | comment | added | Peter Shor | Looking at etymonline, in Old English, -ere was the suffix for this, in Classical Latin, -or was the suffix, and in Classical Greek, -istes was the suffix. Some words come straight from these sources (fisher, actor, dogmatist). But Late Latin borrowed -ist from Greek and started forming words with -ist. So the suffix depends on where and when the words were coined. (There is also some regularity in that -isms turn into -ists.) | |
| Mar 27, 2015 at 13:18 | comment | added | multigoodverse | @Kris: the answer of the question you are pointing to says "I couldn't find anything on -ist.", so that doesn't answer this question. | |
| Mar 27, 2015 at 13:03 | comment | added | Kris | @PeterShor If it did, this Q would have been closed. It may still get closed, for other reasons, though. | |
| Mar 27, 2015 at 13:01 | comment | added | Peter Shor | @Kris: that post does not answer this question. | |
| Mar 27, 2015 at 12:57 | comment | added | Peter Shor | The French say charpentier, peintre, banquier, artiste, nationaliste, and dentiste, so ask them. We just borrowed the words. | |
| Mar 27, 2015 at 12:54 | comment | added | Kris | Please go through previous related posts. This (and/ or similar) question(s) already dealt with on these pages earlier. To start with, see the box "RELATED" at the right hand bottom of this page. Especially, english.stackexchange.com/questions/112826/… | |
| Mar 27, 2015 at 12:52 | history | asked | multigoodverse | CC BY-SA 3.0 |