1666, letter from William Acworth, in Siam, to George Oxenden of the British East India Company, cited in John Anderson, English Intercourse with Siam in the Seventeenth Century, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1890, p. 105,
[…] the Portuguese very privatly gives information […] that it [the murder] was done by one of my people and by my order[;] this young man whom they accused was my linguister […]

1701, trial of William Kidd, in Carrie J. Harris (ed.), State Trials of Mary, Queen of Scots, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Captain William Kidd, Chicago: Callaghan, 1899, p. 183,
Mr. Coniers: What did you take from this ship?
[Robert] Brad[inham]: Capt. Kidd took out Parker, and a Portuguese for a Linguister.
Mr. Coniers: A Linguister, What do you mean by that?
Brad.: An interpreter;

“[…] He can talk to the Pawnee, and the Konza, and the Omawhaw, and he can talk to his own people.” ¶ “Ay, there are linguisters in the settlements that can do still more. But what profits it all? The Master of Life has an ear for every language!”

Though he Geoffrey Chaucer] did not and could not create our language (for he who writes to be read does not write for linguisters), yet it is true that he first made it easy […]

the linguister, whose work it is to make clear to his fellow Africans the wishes and commands of officers and crew

One day a linguister, a native commission agent, arrived in a trading canoe, and stated that […] a prince some way up the river […] had [said] […] that if I sent him five longs and five gallons of rum he would […] let my trade pass.

A “chief linguister” went along in order to act as a broker for the ship’s captain or supercargo.

Linguister

Meaning

Noun

Synonyms