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There are drummers, buglers, fifers, whistlers, and fiddlers. Folks who play all the other instruments use the -ist suffix — pianist, violinist, cellist, tympanist, guitarist, flautist, etc., etc., ad nauseam. What determines which suffix should be used?

Ray Butterworth
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Jim Farwell
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5 Answers5

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What strikes me is that the -er ones look like they are derived from verbs: a drummer drums, a fiddler fiddles, a whistler whistles.

A guitarist plays guitar, a pianist plays piano.

So if the instrument is also (used) as a verb, we seem to prefer deriving the name for the musician from that verb, rather than from the instrument.

oerkelens
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    I wanted to say the same. Actually I always took as granted that this is the case. – AverageGatsby Jan 26 '15 at 13:36
  • …and, of course, a conductor conducts. – Ant Jan 26 '15 at 13:41
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    Most would agree -- including the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv177.shtml -- but it's still an opinion or at best a rule that's only sometimes followed. – Kris Jan 26 '15 at 13:46
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    So a bugler bugles, and a fifer fifes? – Ypnypn Jan 26 '15 at 20:03
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    @Ypnypn: yes, fife is a verb, albeit archaic. – oerkelens Jan 26 '15 at 21:21
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    Your last sentence is right but backwards. If there is a verbal form, then you can use the -er ending, but the lack of one necessitates the -ist. Fiddlers can play the fiddle, Pianists can play the piano. But, while fiddlers can fiddle, pianists can pian. :) – Affable Geek Jan 26 '15 at 21:37
  • @AffableGeek: I meant my sentence exactly as it stands: piano is not a verb, so we always say pianist. Drum is a verb, so we can choose drummer or drummist. And we prefer to use the form from the verb (drummer) rather than the form from the instrument (drummist). So indeed, if the instrument is also a verb we prefer to derive the musician from the verb. (We prefer because after all, we have a choice. It is this preference that causes the question :) ) – oerkelens Jan 26 '15 at 21:43
  • @SrJoven~the point of my comment is that if drum(v) came after drum(n), then the suggestion that a drummer is not a drummist because of the existence of drum(v) would fall down, as the verb didn't exist at the time 'drummer' was coined. According to OED, drum(n) came first (1541), then drummer(1573) then drum(v) in 1578. Bugle(n) is dated 1340, bugler from 1840, and bugle(v) from 1862. Not conclusive, I know, but it does suggest that the nouns for both instrument and player came first, followed later by the verb. – Roaring Fish Jan 27 '15 at 10:57
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    But really all this talk about drummers misses the point, since they are really called percussionists. – AJMansfield Jan 27 '15 at 12:31
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    @RoaringFish with respect to the OED--may its definitions exist forever[insert genuflection]--could it really honestly take 32 years for a word to exist for that guy who plays the drums? – SrJoven Jan 27 '15 at 15:03
  • @SrJoven ~ Indeed, and the poor guy who blows a bugle didn't get a mention for 500 years, but the important point is that the verbs 'to drum' and 'to bugle' come later than the nouns drummer and bugler, which throws doubt on the the idea that the -er suffix is derived from the verbs. A shame, as it is a neat idea and I may be tempted to use it anyway if pressed. Similar to the port-out-starboard-home and the 75cl testicle... probably not true but very believable. – Roaring Fish Jan 28 '15 at 16:11
  • @RoaringFish I think I can agree that the practical usage of the performer's appellation precedes the verb. It loops back to the original question, and mine... "What do you call that guy who plays the drums?" At that point, "Why that word?" but then, on some incarnation of SE in the ancient past, "Is there a single word for the action that is performed by beating on a drum?" – SrJoven Jan 28 '15 at 21:13
  • Why was my comment deleted? Is mentioning the lute and lutists against the site's guidelines or something? I meant to back @oerkelens's answer. A lutist is someone who plays the lute, or a maker of lutes. –  Jan 29 '15 at 11:03
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Reference The New Fowler's Modern English Usage.

Compare doer and perpetrator. (-or is the Latin agent-noun ending corresponding to English -er)

English verbs derived from Latin —such as act, credit, invent, oppress, possess, prosecute, protect—usually prefer this Latin ending to the English one in -er.

Some other verbs, e.g. conquer, govern, and purvey, not corresponding to the above description have agent-nouns in -or owing to their passage through French or through some other circumstance.

A select list of differences may be of interest: corrupter and corrector, deserter and abductor; dispenser and distributor, eraser and ejector.

Some verbs generate alternative forms, generally preferring -er for the personal and -or for the mechanical agent (e.g. adapt, convey, distribute, resist)

There are several -ist types:

(a) Forming a simple agent-noun and usually having an accompanying verb in -ize (antagonist, apologist, evangelist, etc.) and an accompanying abstract noun in -ism (antagonism,etc.);

(b) designating a person devoted to some art, science, etc., e.g. archaeologist, economist, artist↔instrumentalist, dramatist, philologist;

(c) designating an adherent of some creed, doctrine, etc., e.g. atheist, Buddhist, Calvinist, hedonist;

(d) modern formations of various kinds, e.g. balloonist, cyclist, fetishist, finalist

Misti
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I am tempted to explain the -er musicians' titles as being military-related. Buglers, fifers, drummers...all are associated with military events, ceremonies, or marching. Even penny-whistlers have accompanied marching men...and anyway, "whistlist" would sound like a roster of card-players.

...But there's an exception. The odd-man-out is the fiddler...not associated with military matters, to the best of my knowledge. Perhaps we can attribute the use of "fiddler" to the informal type of music generally played on a fiddle -- folk and country music -- which condemns the musician to the lowly -er. If one plays more formal music, one is therefore recognized by all cognoscenti to be a violinist.

But if you'd like a little giggle, try to imagine a contestant at a local banjo and fiddle festival who advertises himself as "Jim-Bob Yokum, Fiddlist".

Jim Farwell
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  • There are probably many exceptions: I am a trumpeter, cornetist (not a cornettist - different instrument) and bugler. The first is not military, the second is, and the third definitely is. – Phil M Jones Jan 26 '15 at 11:01
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    Wouldn't a drummer also be a percussionist? – Roaring Fish Jan 26 '15 at 11:59
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    @RoaringFish and a fiddler would be a violinist. The divide is so sharply defined that some people believe they are different instruments. – Random832 Jan 26 '15 at 17:09
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Maybe it's just because they end in [e]? "Trombone" is an exception (There's one in every crowd) and "oboe" and seems problematic - but, when in doubt, you can always say, "He's a ____ (name of instrument) player.

Oldbag
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  • Drum doesn't end in [e]. I did wonder if it had something to with the phonology, but that idea fell apart when I thought of 'violinist' and 'Berliner'. If we are happy enough to have Berliners in the world, why not violiners? Next thought: etymology. – Roaring Fish Jan 26 '15 at 17:51
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In the original poster's list of examples, it seems that the words with Germanic origin (such as "drummer") end with "er", and the words with Latin origin (such as "pianist") end with "ist".

Many of music's Latin-origin words are from Italian.

Jasper
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