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Glite Dictionary
👏 Hand music maker 🤟 Sign language user
manualist

manualist

8.6
A person who uses or supports sign language to teach people who are deaf
  • noun
  • /ˈmæn.ju.əl.ɪst/
  • Specialized
translation icon : intérprete de lengua de señas
  • The manualist taught the children how to communicate effectively using sign language.

Examples

  • Many manualists believe that sign language should be the primary mode of communication in deaf education.

  • As a manualist, she emphasized the importance of hand gestures in understanding deaf culture.

  • True, in the last century, many moralists, particularly the manualists, made such claims.

    Academic text (2009)

Synonyms

signer
vsmanualist
1 4.5

A person who translates speech into sign language for deaf people

focuses on promoting or teaching sign language especially in deaf education

How Active

advocate
282 4.1
manualist
  • Specialized
8.6
signer
1 4.5

Surface Forms

manualist singular
manualists plural

Morphology

manualist = manual (transparent) = manual + ist

Agentive '-ist' attached to 'manual' yields a person associated with hand-based activities, which predicts the sign-language/hand-communication sense.

Etymology

The word manualist comes from the Latin manus meaning 'hand' and the idea of manual as 'by hand'. So a manualist is a person who uses or supports hand-based sign language to communicate, especially in teaching deaf children.