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It’s no hot take to say that the original pundits were highly learned scholars and teachers in India; it’s just a statement of fact. Our English word pundit comes from the Hindi word paṇḍit, a term of respect (and sometimes an honorary title) for a wise person, especially one with knowledge of philosophy, religion, and law; its ultimate source is the Sanskrit word paṇḍita, meaning “learned.” English speakers have used pundit to refer to sages of India since the 1600s, but as is typically done with English, they eventually pushed the word into new semantic territory. By the late 1800s, pundit could also refer to a member of what is sometimes called the commentariat or punditocracy—that is, the collective group of political commentators, financial analysts, and newspaper columnists often paid to share their views on a variety of subjects.
Examples of pundit in a Sentence
Matt Lavietes, NBC News, 8 Nov. 2024
Through both of those previous elections, Trump showed himself able to turn out droves of supporters, especially in rural areas and, even while losing in 2020, defying expectations from pollsters and pundits.
—Todd Spangler, Detroit Free Press, 6 Nov. 2024
Political pundit Rory Stewart, a former U.K. government minister married to an American, argued these corrections in modeling to address problems in their data meant pollsters could not be relied on to provide an accurate portrait of public opinion.
—Christiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 5 Nov. 2024
With just one day before the U.S. presidential election, both political and investing pundits are bombarding us with their advice on who will win and where the stock market will go.
—Tom Aspray, Forbes, 4 Nov. 2024
See all Example Sentences for pundit 
Dictionary Entries Near pundit
Cite this Entry
“Pundit.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pundit. Accessed 28 Nov. 2024.
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