ecologist

English

Alternative forms

• œcologist (archaic)

Etymology

From eco- +‎ -logist. The less common sense “environmentalist” might be from association with deep ecology, or influenced by Romance-language equivalents such as Spanish ecologista (“environmentalist”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /iːˈkɒləd͡ʒɪst/, /ɪˈkɒləd͡ʒɪst/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

ecologist (plural ecologists)

1. A scholar of ecology.
   • 2006 December 15, Alok Jha, “Planting trees to save planet is pointless, say ecologists”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Planting trees to combat climate change is a waste of time, according to a study by ecologists who say that most forests do not have any overall effect on global temperature, while those furthest from the equator could actually be making global warming worse.

   • 2013 May 27, Peter Andrey Smith, “Mapping the Great Indoors”, in The New York Times‎^[2], →ISSN:

     Once ecologists have more thoroughly identified indoor species, they hope to come up with strategies to scientifically manage homes, by eliminating harmful taxa and fostering species beneficial to our health.

   • 2020 January 3, Graham Readfearn, “‘Silent death’: Australia's bushfires push countless species to extinction”, in The Guardian‎^[3]:

     Ecologists say the months of intense and unprecedented fires will almost certainly push several species to extinction.

2. (uncommon) An environmentalist (one who advocates for the protection of the environment).
   • 2003, Christopher Rootes, Environmental Protest in Western Europe, OUP, →ISBN, page 210:

     Protest actions of this type served to take debate, and the Basque ecologists, onto the street and to encourage people to carry out principled actions such as the eco-sabotage at Itoiz.

   • 2005, Carolyn Merchant, Radical Ecology: The Search for a Livable World, 2nd edition, Routledge, →ISBN, page 254:

     Despite the accomplishments and the vision of radical ecologists, however, most of the world's power is presently concentrated in economic systems and political institutions that bring about environmental deterioration.

   • 2016, Lorenzo Bosi, Marco Giugni, Katrin Uba, editors, The Consequences of Social Movements, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 274:

     Second, throughout the 1970s, the party Executive guaranteed its support to numerous ecologists’ protest actions, and formed a number of broader umbrella organizations with ecology groups and smaller parties on the Left in order to facilitate communication, share ideas and strategies, and organize and promote common social initiatives on environmental matters.

Derived terms

• agroecologist
• astroecologist
• bioecologist
• chemoecologist
• deep ecologist
• dendroecologist
• ethnoecologist
• geoecologist
• macroecologist
• palaeoecologist
• paleoecologist

 

Related terms

• ecological
• ecologism
• ecology

Translations

A scientist who studies ecology

• Asturian: ecólogu m
• Catalan: ecòleg m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 生態學家 / 生态学家 (zh) (shēngtàixuéjiā)

• Czech: ekolog (cs) m
• Dutch: ecoloog (nl) m, ecologe (nl) f
• Esperanto: ekologo
• Finnish: ekologi (fi)
• French: écologue (fr) m or f, écologiste (fr) m or f
• Galician: ecoloxista (gl)
• German: Ökologe (de) m, Ökologin (de) f
• Hungarian: ökológus (hu)
• Irish: éiceolaí m
• Italian: ecologista (it) m or f, ecologo m
• Japanese: 環境学者 (かんきょうがくしゃ, kankyōgakusha)
• Latvian: ekologs m, ekoloģe f
• Maori: kaimātai hauropi
• Norman: écologiste m or f
• Polish: ekolog (pl) m
• Portuguese: ecologista (pt) m or f, ecólogo m
• Romanian: ecologist m
• Russian: эко́лог (ru) m (ekólog)
• Spanish: ecólogo (es) m, ecóloga f
• Swedish: ekolog (sv) c
• Ukrainian: еко́лог m (ekóloh)

environmentalist — see environmentalist

Further reading

• “ecologist”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “ecology”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “ecologist”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “ecologist”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.

Dutch

Etymology

Probably borrowed, e.g. from French écologiste. Equivalent to ecologie +‎ -ist.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌeː.koː.loːˈɣɪst/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: eco‧lo‧gist

Noun

ecologist m (plural ecologisten, diminutive ecologistje n)

1. (Belgium) an environmentalist

   Je hoeft geen ecoloog zijn om ecologist te worden

   You don't need to be an ecologist to become an environmentalist

   Synonym: milieuactivist

Related terms

• ecologie
• ecologisme
• ecoloog

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French écologiste.

Adjective

ecologist m or n (feminine singular ecologistă, masculine plural ecologiști, feminine and neuter plural ecologiste)

1. environmental

Declension

		singular				plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine		masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative- accusative	indefinite	ecologist		ecologistă		ecologiști	ecologiste
	definite	ecologistul		ecologista		ecologiștii	ecologistele
genitive- dative	indefinite	ecologist		ecologiste		ecologiști	ecologiste
	definite	ecologistului		ecologistei		ecologiștilor	ecologistelor

Noun

ecologist m (plural ecologiști)

1. environmentalist (the political position).

Declension

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	ecologist	ecologistul		ecologiști	ecologiștii
genitive-dative	ecologist	ecologistului		ecologiști	ecologiștilor
vocative	ecologistule			ecologiștilor