Nestor
/ˈnɛstər/noun
The senior and most respected figure in a field, consulted for long experience.
The Greek roots
Literally: “the one who brings men home”
The story of the word
Homer's Nestor is the old king of Pylos whose advice runs long and who reminds the Achaeans that two generations of men have already died before him. English borrowed him whole as a common noun for the elder statesman of any trade. The name is usually connected with νέομαι, to come safely home, which would make it a title rather than a label, and the Ten Thousand of a later century would have understood it.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
In a sentence
At eighty-one he was the nestor of the paper, and the newsroom still cleared a path for him.
They wheeled out the nestor of British archaeology to open the exhibition.