[f. as prec. + -IST, or ad. F. spécialiste.]
Worcester (1846), gives ‘Specialist, a practical man. Qu. Rev.’ Hence in Ogilvie (1850).
1. A medical practitioner or authority who specially devotes his attention to the study or treatment of a particular disease or class of diseases.
1856. Kane, Arct. Explor., II. ix. 93. The recital might edify a specialist who was anxious to register the Protean indications of scurvy.
1875. B. Meadows, Clin. Observ., 11. Has been treated by an eminent specialist, with both arsenic and mercury.
1889. D. C. Murray, Dangerous Catspaw, 162. He was a famous nerve specialist when he retired from practice.
2. In general use, one who specially or exclusively studies one subject or one particular branch of a subject.
1862. H. Spencer, First Princ., II. i. § 36 (1867), 130. Even the most limited specialist would not describe as philosophical, an essay which [etc.].
1877. Sir C. W. Thomson, Voy. Challenger, I. i. 9. To associate with her complement of scientific officers a civilian staff of specialists.
1884. Symonds, Shaks. Predecessors, Pref. p. ix. I cannot pretend to be a specialist in this department; nor have I sought to write for specialists.
3. attrib. (of persons or things).
1883. Fortn. Rev., July, 110. The matters to be dealt with require a specialist knowledge.
1887. D. Maguire, Art Massage (ed. 4), 15. The specialist doctor who practises therapeutic massage should develop a special action of his own.
1893. F. Adams, New Egypt, Introd. p. xix. I had no specialist acquaintance with the place or the people.
