wordster
English
WOTD – 7 February 2018
Etymology
The Scottish lexicographer and philologist Sir James Murray (1837–1915), who was the first editor of the Oxford English Dictionary
word + -ster.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈwɜːdstə/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈwɝdstɚ/
Audio (AU) (file) - Hyphenation: word‧ster
Noun
wordster (plural wordsters)
- One who is skilled at using words; a wordsmith. [from early 20th c.]
- 1903 January, H[orace] T[raubel], “Collect”, in Horace Traubel, editor, The Conservator, number 11, Philadelphia, Pa.: Innes & Sons, 200 S. Tenth Street, OCLC 1697211, page 162, column 1:
- The toiler toils. The wordster words. And you say all your prayers in words. Toil is always alive. But words are dead.
- 1923, Flora Warren Seymour, editor, The Step Ladder; a Monthly Journal of Bookly Ascent, volume 7–8, Cedar Rapids, Iowa: The Bookfellows, OCLC 921919796, page 117:
- The style is that of the trained reporter, ready and fluent; the craft of the wordster is here seen at its best.
- 1924, Julius Weiss Friend, editor, The Double Dealer, New Orleans, La.: The Double Dealer Publishing Co., OCLC 5789331, page 360, column 1:
- So long has it been since Charles Cotton was a wit and a wordster that a short biographical notice well may precede any remarks about this book.
- 1990, Punch: Or The London Charivari, volume 299, London: Punch, OCLC 50589972, page 14:
- At his command, a team of authentically be-kilted wordsters has combed the highlands and islands of Scotland to bring you this, our tribute to a very special country.
- 2002, Adam Davies, The Frog King: A Love Story, New York, N.Y.: Riverhead Books, →ISBN:
- I know a lie when I hear one, even from a wordster like you.
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- One who studies words.
- 1988, Language Technology, Amsterdam: INK International, OCLC 863484143, page 53, column 1:
- Quite how complete or relevant all this information is to professional wordsters remains to be seen, though desktop publishers will find hyphenation rules included […]
- 1994, Richard Lederer, Adventures of a Verbivore, New York, N.Y.: Pocket Books, →ISBN, page 5:
- Wordsters of etymological persuasion also hope to be sitting in the catbird seat when it comes to locating the origins of colorful phrases.
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- (derogatory) One who uses words instead of actions; a hypocrite, a verbalist.
- 1909, James Douglas, “Spring Gardens”, in Adventures in London, London; New York, N.Y.: Cassell and Company, Limited, OCLC 933105738, page 230:
- It is not easy to analyse the personality of the [London County] Council, but it is a sharply-marked personality. […] It despises the wordster and the tonguester. It is, in short, a big committee rather than a Parliament.
- 1919, J[ohn] C[ollis] Snaith, chapter XII, in The Undefeated, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 758763474, page 64:
- He was a wordster, a dreamer; there was nothing at the back of his rose-colored ideas.
- 1921, Henry Arthur Jones, “Letter Five: Mr. Wells Invents a New Kind of Honesty”, in My Dear Wells: A Manual for the Haters of England: Being a Series of Letters upon Bolshevism, Collectivism, Internationalism, and the Distribution of Wealth Addressed to Mr. H. G. Wells, 2nd edition, London: Eveleigh Nash & Grayson Ltd., 148, Strand, OCLC 58894060, page 37:
- If [Alexander] Kerensky had been a man of insight and action, instead of being a wordster, if he had joined forces with Korniloff [Lavr Kornilov] instead of betraying him, quite another form of government would have been possible and operative in Russia to-day.
- 1965, Nation, number 160–184, Sydney, N.S.W.: Nation, ISSN 0027-836X, OCLC 173345335, page 145, column 1:
- Why should the prospect, however remote, of a communist government in Vietnam cause us to panic. Mr. Menzies' alarm causes no surprise; he lives in the past. In any case, he is a mere wordster, a trifler when it comes to foreign affairs, which have always been his Achilles heel.
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Translations
one skilled at using words
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one who studies words
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one who uses words instead of actions — see hypocrite