[WikiEN-l] What is an "expert"?

[Ray Saintonge]

Marc Riddell wrote:

>I believe there is something we should ask at this point. This question is
>for everyone participating in this Mailing List:
>
>What is your definition of an "expert"?
>
>Please, for now, try to resist responding to the others' answers, simply
>state your own.
>
The first place that I looked at for help on this was my 1816 11th 
edition of Samuel Johnson's dictionary.  What surprised me was to see 
that it appears there only as an adjective.  Its use as a noun came 
later in the 19th century.  That being said the shortening of "expert 
person" to simply "expert" is a common linguistic phenomenon.

"Expert" comes from the Latin 'expertus', the past participle of 
'experior', meaning 'to try."  "Experience" and "experiment" have the 
same origon.  The general tone of the word suggests an acquisition of 
skills through practice and experience.  An interesting usage from 
Francis Bacon: "Expert men can execute and judge of particulars, one by 
one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs 
come best from those that are learnèd."  Or Oliver Goldsmith: "The 
sceptic is ever expert ast puzzling a debate which he finds himself 
unable to continue."

 From this it would be inappropriate to suggest that a person is an 
expert by the simple expedient of having sat an exam or completed a 
course of certification.  At bare minimum a physician needs to have 
interned, and a lawyer to have articled.  Even then it would be too easy 
to fall into presumptuous folly.  Book learning alone does not produce 
an expert.

Ec