Culturist

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An individual who actively encourages or advances cultural growth and education
2. Someone dedicated to fostering the development and appreciation of culture in society
3. A person engaged in supporting or improving cultural activities and understanding

Etymology: "Culturist" is a plain English formation: the noun "culture" with the suffix "-ist," which names a person who practices or advocates something. The suffix came into English through Middle English from Old French "-iste," which in turn descends from Latin "-ista" and the Greek "-istēs," an agent marker found in words for people who follow a practice, such as "artist" or "cyclist." Attaching it to "culture" yields a person devoted to cultivating culture. The base word has its own twist. "Culture" comes from Latin "cultura," from "colere," meaning to tend, inhabit, or cultivate, so it originally referred to working the land. Its sense of refined learning and the arts developed later, and that agricultural root stays visible in the "-ist" coinage, where a culturist tends the cultivation of minds rather than soil.

Synonyms: cultured person, sociologist, anthropologist, ethnographer, socioculturalist