Sculptor

How to spell sculptor

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sculptor

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sculptor mean?

1. nounAn artist who creates three-dimensional works by carving, modelling, or casting materials such as stone, clay, or metal.

Sculptor in a sentence

• The sculptor spent months chiselling the marble figure.

• The gallery commissioned a local sculptor to design the bronze statue.

Where does sculptor come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes directly from the Latin sculptor, which named a person who carves or engraves, an agent noun formed from the verb sculpere, meaning 'to carve, cut, or chisel'. That same verb gave Latin sculptura, the source of the English word 'sculpture'. English took 'sculptor' from Latin in the early 1600s, at a time when many learned art and trade terms were being borrowed wholesale from classical sources. The spelling trap lives in the ending: because the word came straight from a Latin agent noun in -or, it keeps that -or rather than the more common English -er, even though it sounds identical. Knowing that the Latin agent suffix was -or (the same one in 'doctor', 'actor', and 'inventor') is the surest way to remember why a sculptor is not a 'sculpter'.

How the word is built

• sculpt- (from Latin sculpere: to carve, cut)
• -or (agent noun suffix: one who does)