linguister

plural linguisters · alternative lingster · alternative linkister · alternative linkster

1. Synonym of interpreter, particularly
   1. archaichistoricalA native interpreter assisting Europeans in colonial contexts.First known use 17th–19th c.

      the linguister, whose work it is to make clear to his fellow Africans the wishes and commands of officers and crew

      2011, Barry Unsworth, chapter 8, in The Quality of Mercy, New York: Nan A. Talese, page 69

      4 more examples

      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, […] 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, 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;

      “[…] 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!”

      1827, James Fenimore Cooper, chapter 26, in The Prairie, New York: Stringer & Townsend, published 1856, page 385

      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 […]

      1871, James Russell Lowell, “Chaucer”, in My Study Windows, London: S. Low, Son, and Marston, page 196

   2. archaichistoricalA native agent facilitating European trade in East and Central Africa in colonial contexts.First known use 18th–19th c.

      A “chief linguister” went along in order to act as a broker for the ship’s captain or supercargo.

      1991, Philip D. Curtin, chapter 3, in The Tropical Atlantic in the Age of the Slave Trade, Washington, DC: American Historical Association, page 34

      1 more example

      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.

      1887, Richard Edward Dennett, chapter 4, in Seven Years Among the Fjort: Being and English Trader’s Experiences in the Congo District, London: S. Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, pages 80–81