Journalist
nounA person who writes for or reports news to newspapers, magazines, broadcasters, or online outlets.
How to spell journalist
10 letters · 3 syllables
How to pronounce journalist
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does journalist mean?
- nounA person who writes for or reports news to newspapers, magazines, broadcasters, or online outlets.
Journalist in a sentence
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The journalist spent three months investigating the council's finances.
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A freelance journalist pitched the story to several editors.
Where does journalist come from?
Language of origin: French
This word is built on 'journal', which traces back through Old French 'jurnal' to the Latin 'diurnalis', meaning 'of the day' or 'daily', itself from 'dies', the Latin word for 'day'. A journal originally meant a daily record or a daily news-sheet, and by the 1600s the word described periodical publications. The suffix '-ist', meaning 'a person who practises something', was added in the early 1800s to name the people who wrote for these papers. The hidden 'jour' element survives in plain sight in the French 'bonjour', literally 'good day', and in 'journey', which once meant a single day's travel. The spelling trap lives in that 'jour' opening and the unstressed middle vowel of '-nal-', which sounds like a faint schwa rather than a clear 'a'.
How the word is built
- journ- (from Latin diurnus: of the day, daily)
- -al (relating to)
- -ist (one who does or practises)
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