A person who writes for, compiles, or contributes to an encyclopedia; someone who specializes in or advocates for encyclopedic knowledge.
From encyclopaedia + -ist suffix (indicating a practitioner). The term specifically identifies professional encyclopedic writers, emerging during the major encyclopedia projects of the 18th-19th centuries.
Voltaire, Diderot, and d'Alembert weren't just encyclopedists—they were using the encyclopedia as a weapon against religious dogma and monarchy by defining words in revolutionary ways.
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