The BFD Word of the Day

The word for today is…

pundit (noun):

1: pandit

2: a learned person : teacher

3: a person who gives opinions in an authoritative manner usually through the mass media : critic

Source : Merriam -Webster

Etymology :  The original pundits were highly learned scholars and teachers in India. Our English word pundit comes from the Hindi word pandit, a term of respect (and sometimes an honorary title) for a wise person, especially one with knowledge of philosophy, religion, and law; its ultimate source is the Sanskrit word pandita, meaning “learned.” English speakers have used pundit to refer to sages of India since the 1600s, but as is typically done with English, they eventually pushed the word into new semantic territory. By the late 1800s, pundit could also refer to a member of what is sometimes called the commentariat or punditocracy—that is, the collective group of political commentators, financial analysts, and newspaper columnists often paid to share their views on a variety of subjects.

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