Examples of other words like "Cineaste"

March 22, 2012 12:40 PM

A cinephile is someone who loves movies, but a cineaste is someone who uses her love of movies to inform and inspire her own filmmaking. Do other disciplines have a similar term?

I'm looking for other terms that describe people with extensive knowledge in a certain discipline that they use while working in that discipline.

Is there a word describing musicians who are especially informed music geeks? Game designers with an extensive knowledge of the history of games? Bricklayers that also run a Bricklaying Museum?

posted by beautifulstuff to writing & language (10 answers total)

Gourmand and gastronome imply different levels of appreciation of food. A gourmand loves food, while a gastronome (who is likely also a gourmand) loves the interplay of food and culture and the development of new foods and cooking techniques.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 12:56 PM on March 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

The term poetaster, meaning an inferior poet with pretentions to artistic value, had been coined by Erasmus in 1521. It was used by Jonson in 1600, then popularized with this play in 1601.
posted by jamjam at 1:02 PM on March 22, 2012

^Meant to be in italics to denote a quotation.
posted by jamjam at 1:03 PM on March 22, 2012

Bookworms read a lot and love books for their content. Bibliophiles are really into books generally and may be collectors. Bibliomania is someone who collects books at an OCD level and it is actually a medical symptom that can indicate OCD.
posted by jessamyn at 1:37 PM on March 22, 2012

The sciences have a variety of examples.

botanist (vs. botanophile)
astronomer (vs. astrophile)
chemist
etc.

Another suffix to use is -ologist (e.g. musicologist), since -ology implies study of something.

The Oxford English Dictionary says that cinéast (or cinéaste) is a combination of the French ciné (film) and a borrowed suffix "ast" as in enthusiast, and defines it as, "an enthusiast for, or devotee of, the cinema." I think at the very least if you lack a precise single word for a devotee in a particular area of interest, you could always just add the word "enthusiast" and you would convey the approximate meaning.

A docent at a bricklaying museum, for instance, might be a bricklaying enthusiast without being a bricklayer him- or herself. The curator of a firefighting museum may never have fought a fire, but might be a fire engine enthusiast.
posted by tempestuoso at 1:47 PM on March 22, 2012

Cobblers are shoe repairers. Cordwainers are shoemakers.
posted by Madamina at 2:00 PM on March 22, 2012

Scholar.
posted by Clyde Mnestra at 5:19 PM on March 22, 2012

Aikidoka vs. Aikidoist
posted by Tom-B at 6:14 PM on March 22, 2012

Much as Cool Papa Bell said, I've always understood "gourmet" and "gastronome" to denote someone who enjoys and appreciates food, but "gourmand" merely a big eater--the first ones talk about quality, but the latter is all about quantity.

Also, I did a great deal of canoeing as a boy, and recall "canoeist" as the proper term for the canoe connoisseur, and "canoer" as that for the sort of dilettante who would refer to a canoe as a "boat" and paddles as "oars" and the like. Might be a little domain-specific, but there you go.
posted by tellumo at 10:23 PM on March 22, 2012

I think "Trekkie" and "Trekker" have a similar relationship.

Also, "spelunker" and "caver," where-- not speaking from experience, "Caver" seems to be the accepted term among the hardcore.

Also what this reminded me of was that people sometimes confuse an artiste with an artisan. The former makes a high form of a creative work, while the latter has created a high form of a craft.
posted by Sunburnt at 6:00 PM on March 23, 2012