Today's Word "Docent"
Published in Vocabulary
docent \DO-sehnt\ (noun) - In Eastern European universities, the equivalent of an associate professor. Elsewhere the word refers to a lecturer who is not a regular member of the faculty. Most recently the English word has begun to refer to a tour guide in a museum or art gallery.
"Sarah will be our social docent at the party this evening; she knows everything worth knowing about everyone."
German Dozent "lecturer, tutor" from Latin docent-us "teaching, teacher" present participle of docere "to teach" (Greek "didasko"). The Proto-Indo-European root is "dek-" and it lends us such terms as "doctor," "dogma," "document," and "disciple," the docent's companion because it comes from the Latin discere "to learn." A docent's counterpart in medicine and religion is the "locum." "Locum" is short for "locum tenens," literally, "one holding a place." It's used in British English to describe the working situation of some GPs in the National Health Service.
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