Word of the Moment: Titlist

I ran across a word I had never seen before the other day: "titlist."  At first I was quite confused, but mostly because my mind has been lodged firmly in the same gutter for about two decades. I was later surprised to learn that the word was not a typo or a recent journalistic invention, but a term that's been around the block for a relatively long time.

So, in yet one more edition of our Word of the Moment, let us examine the history, derivation and phonology of “titlist.” A word which, I would learn, does not mean an orderly catalog of certain mammalian body parts.

A titlist, pronounced with a long I (tie-tle-ist), is the person (or group of persons) who currently holds a sporting title, as in the Yahoo Sports blog post which precipitated this entry: “Defending titlist North Carolina was on a long list of traditional powerhouses that didn’t receive spots in this year’s tournament.” (full article here).  

The word is a purely twentieth century invention, being first attested in a billiards magazine in June of 1924. The alternative spelling "Titleist," which is a brand name owned by the golf equipment manufacturing company Acushnet, came into being in 1935.

Once the matter of the vowel length has been sorted out, it becomes clear that this word is a combination of “title” with the suffix “-ist.”

The word “title” comes ultimately from the Latin “titulus” which meant superscript or something that is written on top or above something else.  In Old English and perhaps even the first part of Middle English the vowel was probably short and the word was spelled accordingly: “tittle.” Why “tittle” became “title” but “bubble” didn't become “buble” I don't know.... 

 

Anyway, the earliest documentary evidence of “titulus” and “title” in English refer to the inscription supposedly placed above the head of Jesus on the cross, “Jesus Christ, King of the Jews.” Around the 1300's many more meanings appear including the familiar name for a book or chapter and the now obsolete inscription on a pillar or tombstone.

Perhaps because it could also refer to a descriptive heading in a legal document, “title” is also the name for a legal document proving ownership of a piece of property or a set of rights, as well as a rank accompanied by certain special rights, as with nobility. “Duke,” for instance, is a title, although they haven't won one in a while...

Any one of these meanings could have been the motivation for “title” being used to describe the top spot among competitors in a sporting event. Although it took a while to make this metaphorical leap, as the first date for this usage is 1922 according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

The suffix “-ist” originally comes from Greek, and sneaked into Latin during Late Antiquity. It's popularity in Latin (especially among the cloister and cathedral crowd) lead to its being passed on during the Dark Ages to French, German and English. It was in England, however, that the use of “-ist” really began to take off.

You see, originally “-ist” was the compliment to “-ize.” Anything you could “-ize” could be done by an “-ist”:

analyze, analyst

antagonize, antagonist

plagiarize, plagiarist

exorcize, exorcist

Not content to this small role, the English “-ist” soon contracted itself out to work with “-ism” and “-y” especially if they sat on the end of one of those fancy Latin/Greek words. I mean, this suffix may be promiscuous, but it's still got standards. Here the the meaning is mostly unchanged: an “-ist” is someone who does a “-y” or believes in an “-ism”:

botany, botanist

meteorology, meteorologist

geology, geologist

archeology, archeologist

polytheism, polytheist

communism, communist

realism, realist

universalism, universalist

Eventually, however, the “-ize,” “-ism” and “-y” became optional and “-ist” struck out on its own, still retaining the meaning of someone who does something associated with the root word:

florist, linguist, artist, novelist, balloonist, violinist, conformist, separatist

So, while English speakers have been broadly expanding the job of the “-ist” suffix for centuries, apparently only those of us in the United States have gone so far as to extend it to “title,” since this word barely shows up in Google, and the OED agrees that it's an American thing. Of course, since anyone who makes it to the championship is a “final-ist” and someone who stands on an Olympic podium is a “medal-ist,” perhaps the extension was inevitable?

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