Orientalist

//ˌɔɹiˈɛntəlɪst// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A scholar who studies the Orient; a person interested in the Orient.

    "1684, George Bright, preface to The works of the Reverend and learned John Lightfoot D. D. Which is rendred somewhat more probable by that very learned Orientalist Dr. Pocok, who tells us the Arabick verb Hausch answering to the Hebrew חיש signifies three things, viz. to hast, to fear, to be ashamed."

  2. 2
    Alternative form of orientalist. alt-of, alternative
  3. 3
    a specialist in oriental subjects wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    Of the West, to take in aspects of the East; pertaining to orientalism

Example

More examples

"1684, George Bright, preface to The works of the Reverend and learned John Lightfoot D. D. Which is rendred somewhat more probable by that very learned Orientalist Dr. Pocok, who tells us the Arabick verb Hausch answering to the Hebrew חיש signifies three things, viz. to hast, to fear, to be ashamed."

Etymology

From oriental + -ist.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.