wordster

Noun

wordster (plural wordsters)

1. One who is skilled at using words; a wordsmith.
   • The toiler toils. The wordster words. And you say all your prayers in words. Toil is always alive. But words are dead.1903 January, H[orace] T[raubel], “Collect”, in Horace Traubel, editor, The Conservator, number 11, Philadelphia, Pa.: Innes & Sons, 200 S. Tenth Street, →OCLC, page 162, column 1
   • The style is that of the trained reporter, ready and fluent; the craft of the wordster is here seen at its best.1923, Flora Warren Seymour, editor, The Step Ladder; a Monthly Journal of Bookly Ascent, volumes 7–8, Cedar Rapids, Iowa: The Bookfellows, →OCLC, page 117
2. One who studies words.
   • Quite how complete or relevant all this information is to professional wordsters remains to be seen, though desktop publishers will find hyphenation rules included […]1988, Language Technology, Amsterdam: INK International, →OCLC, page 53, column 1
   • Wordsters of etymological persuasion also hope to be sitting in the catbird seat when it comes to locating the origins of colorful phrases.1994, Richard Lederer, Adventures of a Verbivore, New York, N.Y.: Pocket Books, →ISBN, page 5
3. (derogatory) One who uses words instead of actions; a hypocrite, a verbalist.
   • It is not easy to analyse the personality of the [London County] Council, but it is a sharply-marked personality. […] It despises the wordster and the tonguester. It is, in short, a big committee rather than a Parliament.1909, James Douglas, “Spring Gardens”, in Adventures in London, London; New York, N.Y.: Cassell and Company, Limited, →OCLC, page 230
   • He was a wordster, a dreamer; there was nothing at the back of his rose-colored ideas.1919, J[ohn] C[ollis] Snaith, chapter XII, in The Undefeated, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 64