theorist

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Hellenic *tʰā́wā

Ancient Greek θέᾱ (théā)

Proto-Indo-European *wer-der.

Proto-Indo-European *h₃ekʷ-der.

Proto-Indo-European *weyd-der.

Ancient Greek ὁράω (horáō)

Ancient Greek *θεᾱ-(ϝ)ορός, *θεη-(ϝ)ορός (*theā-(w)orós, *theē-(w)orós)

Ancient Greek θεωρός (theōrós)

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂

Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂

Proto-Indo-European *-i-eh₂

Proto-Hellenic *-íā

Ancient Greek -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā)

Ancient Greek θεωρία (theōría)bor.

Late Latin theōrialbor.

Middle French théoriebor.

English theory

Proto-Indo-European *-id-

Proto-Indo-European *-yéti

Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti

Proto-Hellenic *-íd͏̌d͏̌ō

Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō)

Proto-Hellenic *-tās

Ancient Greek -τής (-tḗs)

Ancient Greek -ῐστής (-ĭstḗs)bor.

Latin -istader.

Old French -istebor.

Middle English -ist

English -ist

English theorist

From theory + -ist.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈθɪəɹɪst/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈθiːəɹəst/, /ˈθɪɹəst/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈθɪəɹəst/, /ˈθiːəɹəst/

Noun

theorist (plural theorists)

1. Someone who constructs theories, especially in the arts or sciences.
   • 1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume I: The Founders, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: powstanie (in Polish), →ISBN, →OCLC, page 211:

     The works of Wilhelm Weitling (1808-71) stand out amid the communist utopias of the 1840s not because he was in any sense a forerunner of Marx, but because he was himself a member of the working class and therefore a better exponent of its attitude at the time than were theorists belonging to the privileged classes.

   • 2012 January, Michael Riordan, “Tackling Infinity”, in American Scientist‎^[1], volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 30 April 2013, page 86:

     Some of the most beautiful and thus appealing physical theories, including quantum electrodynamics and quantum gravity, have been dogged for decades by infinities that erupt when theorists try to prod their calculations into new domains.

Synonyms

• theoretician (less common)
• theorizer / theoriser

Derived terms

• A-theorist
• B-theorist
• chaos theorist
• coincidence theorist
• conspiracy theorist
• cybertheorist
• ecotheorist
• game theorist
• gap theorist
• graph theorist
• group theorist
• nontheorist
• number theorist
• representation theorist
• ring theorist

Translations

someone who constructs theories

• Arabic: مُنَظِّر m (munaẓẓir)
• Azerbaijani: nəzəriyyəçi
• Basque: teorialari
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 理論家 / 理论家 (lei⁵ leon⁶ gaa¹)

  Mandarin: 理論家 / 理论家 (zh) (lǐlùnjiā)

• Czech: teoretik m, teoretička f
• Danish: teoretiker c
• Dutch: theoreticus (nl) m
• Finnish: teoreetikko (fi)
• French: théoricien (fr) m, théoricienne (fr) f
• German: Theoretiker (de) m, Theoretikerin (de) f
• Ido: teoriisto
• Indonesian: teoretikus (id)
• Irish: teoiricí m
• Italian: teorico (it) m
• Kazakh: теорияшыл (teorıyašıl)
• Korean: 이론가(理論家) (iron'ga), (North Korea) 리론가 (riron'ga)
• Marathi: सैद्धांतिक m (saiddhāntik), उपपत्तिकार m (upapattikār)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: teoretiker m

  Nynorsk: teoretikar m

• Persian: تئوریسین (fa) (te'orisian)
• Polish: teoretyk (pl) m, teoretyczka f
• Portuguese: teorista m or f, teórico (pt) m
• Romanian: teoretician (ro) m, teoreticiană (ro) f
• Russian: теоре́тик (ru) m (teorétik)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: теоретичар m, теоретичарка f

  Latin: teoretičar (sh) m, teoretičarka (sh) f

• Slovak: teoretik m
• Slovene: teoretik m
• Spanish: teórico (es) m, teórica (es) f
• Swedish: teoretiker (sv) c
• Ukrainian: теоре́тик m (teorétyk)

Anagrams

• Theriots, orthites, otterish, shortite, thorites