zinātnieks

Etymology
From. This word existed before ; it originally meant “person with experience, knowledge,” “knowledgeable person.” It was first used in the modern sense (“scientist”) by J. Alunāns (dabas zinātnieks “natural scientist” in 1860; compare also valodas zinātnieks “language scientist”, used by K. Valdemārs as a synonym of ). It is possible that this usage of influenced A. Kronvalds to coin the word.

Noun

 * 1) (male) scientist, scholar highly qualified specialist doing research work in some branch of science