"one who administers anesthetics," 1861, from stem of anesthesia + -ist.
Entries linking to anesthetist
anesthesia n.
1721, "loss of feeling," medical Latin, from Greek anaisthēsia "want of feeling or perception, lack of sensation (to pleasure or pain)," abstract noun from an- "without" (see an- (1)) + aisthēsis "feeling" (from PIE root *au- "to perceive"). For the abstract noun ending, see -ia.
As "a procedure for the prevention of pain in surgical operations," attested from 1846. Aesthesia "capacity for feeling" is attested in English from 1853, perhaps a back-formation.
-ist
word-forming element meaning "one who does or makes," also used to indicate adherence to a certain doctrine or custom, from French -iste and directly from Latin -ista (source also of Spanish, Portuguese, Italian -ista), from Greek agent-noun ending -istes, which is from -is-, ending of the stem of verbs in -izein, + agential suffix -tes.
Variant -ister (as in chorister, barrister) is from Old French -istre, on false analogy of ministre. Variant -ista is from Spanish, popularized in American English 1970s by names of Latin-American revolutionary movements.
anaesthetist n.
alternative spelling of anesthetist (q.v.). See æ (1).