an ending resulting from the addition of -IST to sbs. in -LOGY, forming sbs. with the general sense ‘one who is versed in —logy.’ It is now the only living formative with this function, the older equivalents -loger, -logian, -logue occurring only in very few words (most of which are obsolescent). The formation is mainly English, though a few examples, as étymologiste, chronologiste, have existed in Fr. from the 16th or 17th c., and others, as zoologiste, appear first in the 19th c.
