A person engaged in encyclopedia writing or compilation; someone devoted to encyclopedic work (rare American variant).
From encyclopedia + -ast suffix. This variant appears occasionally in American texts but was never standard, with 'encyclopedist' being the preferred form.
The '-ast' suffix is rare in English (echoic, enthusiast, gymnast)—this word never took off because 'encyclopedist' was already well-established and more pronounceable.
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