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Wednesday June 30, 2010

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exegete [EK-suh-jeet]

noun

1. A person who provides critical explanation or analysis, especially of written works.

• Most of the book is a relentless exposure of American hypocrisy, weakness and illusion across three administrations and at least five wars. Danner's dissections of the corruption of government language are devastating: he's a great exegete of official mendacity, with apparently endless material on hand.
  George Packer, "Heart of the Matter", New York Times Book Review, Oct 18, 2009
• David Mamet is one of America's most influential playwrights (as well as an actor, screenwriter, director, essayist and biblical exegete). His early plays are famous for street-smart, macho characters spouting a clipped, crafted and profoundly profane patois that has been labeled mametspeak. However, one charge against Mamet has been that his female characters fizzle and fail.
  Barry Gaines, "Writer Successfully Tells Tale of Women", Albuquerque Journal, Apr 29, 2008
• He was a great exegete, and showed a spirit of intellectual liberty which anticipated modern criticism. Sermons to the number of one thousand have been attributed to him.
  The World's Great Sermons, Volume I (1908)

Origin of the Word

Exegete, approximately 1730, derives from Greek exegetes, from exegeisthai "to explain, to interpret."