consultant
Pluralconsultants
- 1A person or company whose occupation or business is to be consulted for expertise, advice, or services in a particular area or specialty.
After leaving the firm, she set up on her own as an independent consultant.
The city hired consultants to evaluate its aging transit system.
Similaradviser, expert, specialist, advisor
- 2Someone, or a group, whose advice or opinion is sought.
On matters of etiquette, her aunt served as the family's unofficial consultant.
The senator treated the retired general as his consultant on military questions.
Similaradviser, advisor, counselor, confidant
Note
Its shape points the other way: the word comes from French consultant, the present participle of consulter, so it looks as if it means "consulting." Latin cōnsulere, built on com- "together," could mean both to deliberate and to ask advice. The English noun settled on the side being asked: whoever seeks advice consults, and the consultant is the one consulted.
- 3In the UK, a senior hospital-based physician or surgeon who has completed all specialist training and been placed on the specialist register, roughly equivalent to an attending physician in North America.
He was appointed consultant in cardiology at a teaching hospital in Manchester.
NHS waiting lists depend heavily on how many consultants each hospital can recruit.
Note
A hospital title in the UK and Ireland, not a description of freelance advice. It marks a physician or surgeon who has finished all specialist training and been entered on the specialist register. North American readers should translate it as attending physician. The advice-giving of the hired expert is not the point here. The word names seniority and a completed specialty.
Practice
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Origin
It comes from French consultant, the present participle of consulter, from Latin cōnsultāre ("to deliberate, consult"), a frequentative of cōnsulere ("to consult, consider, ask advice"), formed from com- ("together") plus -sulere, which is of uncertain origin.