hermeneut

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἑρμηνευτής (hermēneutḗs, “interpreter”).

hermeneut (plural hermeneuts)

1. (philosophy, theology) A practitioner of hermeneutics: someone who interprets a text, especially a holy text.
   • 1857 May 25, Professor Lumsden, “Conversion of the Jews”, in Proceedings of the Scotland Free Church General Assembly, page 46:

     Moses, full of sacrificial institutes, is the text, Isaiah and all the prophets are the hermeneuts […] .

   • 1989, George H. Jensen, “Introduction”, in Post-Jungian Criticism, page 3:

     He was a hermeneut who worked out striking interpretations of texts.

2. (by extension) An interpreter of culture, experience, etc.
   • 1999, James A. Boon, Verging on Extra-vagance:

     Oh, an ardent hermeneut might try to distinguish his or her own experience as more intensively "pop" than that of less authentic metaconsumers passing through Coke's world.

   • 2008, Michael Vannoy Adams, “The Archetypal School”, in Cambridge Companion to Jung, page 114:

     In short, Hillman is not a hermeneut but an imagist, or phenomenologist, who sticks to the image, adheres to the phenomenon, and adamantly refuses to interpret it, or reduce it to a concept.

• exegete
• hermeneutician
• hermeneuticist
• interpreter

Ultimately from Ancient Greek ἑρμηνευτής (hermēneutḗs). This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

• IPA^(key): /ˌɦɛr.məˈnœy̯t/
• Hyphenation: her‧me‧neut
• Rhymes: -œy̯t

hermeneut m (plural hermeneuten)

1. hermeneut, hermeneutician, hermeneuticist, exegete

   Synonym: exegeet

• hermeneutiek
• hermeneutisch

hermeneut m (plural hermeneuți)

1. hermeneut, hermeneutician, hermeneuticist, exegete

• “hermeneut”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2025