panelist

The word 'panelist' is a modern 20th-century formation built upon the older word 'panel'. 'Panel' itself has a journey from the Latin 'pannus', meaning a piece of cloth. This evolved in Old French to 'panel', referring to a slip of parchment or, crucially, a list of names written on such a piece. By the 17th century, 'panel' in English came to mean a list of people, such as jurors. The sense of a group of people gathered for discussion emerged later. The suffix '-ist', of Greek origin, is a prolific agent-noun former in English. Therefore, a 'panelist' is literally "a person on the list," logically evolving to mean a participant in the group assembled for a specific purpose.

Structure: panel (list) + ist (person who does) - panel: From Old French 'panel' (piece of cloth, list), from Latin 'pannus' (piece of cloth). Functions as the base noun. - ist: A suffix of Greek origin via Latin, denoting a person who practices or is concerned with something. Functions as an agent noun suffix.