Semioticist

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A scholar who studies semiotics, the field examining how signs, symbols and language create meaning
2. Someone who specializes in semiotics and analyzes how signs and symbols convey meaning within culture
3. An expert in the study of signs, symbols and their interpretation, particularly in language, media and communication

Etymology: A semioticist is someone who studies semiotics, the science of signs and symbols, and the word is built the plainest way English builds such names: "semiotic" plus the suffix "-ist," which marks a person who practises or specialises in a field. Here the base is itself a learned coinage. "Semiotic" comes from the Greek "sēmeiōtikos," relating to signs, drawn from "sēmeion," meaning sign or mark, and English adopted it as an adjective for the study of signs. The suffix "-ist" entered English through French and Latin from Greek "-istēs," and it has been attached to scholarly fields for centuries, so "semiotician" and "semiologist" are close relatives. The formation is transparent enough that the word needs little more than its parts. Anyone who recognises "semiotics" can work out the sense of "semioticist" immediately, which is one reason it reads as a clean, modern professional label.

Synonyms: semiotician