Receptionist

How to spell receptionist

12 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce receptionist

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does receptionist mean?

1. nounA person employed to greet and assist visitors or callers, usually at the front desk of an office, hotel, or clinic.

Receptionist in a sentence

• The receptionist booked my dental appointment for next Tuesday.

• Every visitor must sign in with the receptionist before entering the building.

Where does receptionist come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is built on the Latin verb recipere, meaning 'to take back' or 'to receive', which combines re- 'back' with capere 'to take'. Its past participle stem gave Latin receptio, a 'receiving', from which English drew the noun 'reception' in the 1400s. The agent suffix -ist, ultimately from Greek by way of Latin and French, was attached in the nineteenth century to name the person who receives callers and visitors, especially at a front desk. The same capere root sits inside a large family of English words such as 'capture', 'accept', and 'capable', all carrying the idea of taking or holding. The spelling trap lives in the middle: the unstressed -tion- is pronounced 'shun', and the ending is -ist, not -est, so the careful speller has to remember both the silent shift and the agent suffix.

How the word is built

• re- (back)
• cept (from Latin capere: to take)
• -ion (noun-forming suffix)
• -ist (person who does)