[f. ETYMOLOGY + -IST.] One who treats of, or is versed in, the science of etymology; one who searches into the history and origin of words.
1635. N. Carpenter, Geog. Del., II. xiii. 216. The Greeke Etymologists ridiculously draw it from many other originalls.
1679. Plot, Staffordsh. (1686), 240. This I take but for the imagination of some fond Etymologist.
1747. Johnson, Plan Dict., Wks. IX. 177. In exhibiting the descent of our language, our etymologists seem to have been too lavish of their learning.
1774. Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, xx. (1840), II. 268. Chaucer, Gower, and Occleve … are supposed by the severer etymologists, to have corrupted the purity of the English language.
1841–4. Emerson, Ess., Poet, Wks. (Bohn), I. 162. The etymologist finds the deadest word to have been once a brilliant picture.
1879. Froude, Cæsar, iv. 38. Etymologists could arrive at no conclusion as to the origin of the name.
