I know I am the daughter of Robert L. Hanson when my mind wanders to words in strange and playful ways that probably seem weird to the rest of the world, but which I find very entertaining.
For some reason this morning I started thinking about words that end in “ist”.
For some words, the suffix “ist” indicates a person who does, makes, practices, or is an expert in something, such as in the words “realist”, “artist”, and “pianist”.
But for certain words, “ist” indicates someone who specifically practices prejudice or discrimination, as with the words “racist”, “sexist” or “ableist”.
But what if all “ist” words followed the logic of the second group of words rather than the first? Then we would come up with words like the following:
People who discriminate against teeth are dentists.
A person who doesn’t like butts is an assist.
Someone who doesn’t like certain internal body parts is an organist.
A person who hates endings is a finalist.
Yes, I know it’s silly and wrong (grammatically speaking), but just going down this road of thought sent me into peals of delight-laughter.
My father, who sometimes signed his letters “Robber Tell Hand Son”, would understand.