Noun

(en noun)

(originally) The keeper of a personal journal, who writes in it regularly.

One whose occupation or is journalism, originally only writing in the printed press.

A reporter, who professionally does living reporting on news and current events.

*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist), author=Lexington

, title= Keeping the mighty honest , passage=British journalists shun complete respectability, feeling a duty to be ready to savage the mighty, or rummage through their bins. Elsewhere in Europe, government contracts and subsidies ensure that press barons will only defy the mighty so far.}}

Noun

(en noun)

A learned person in India; someone with knowledge of Sanskrit, philosophy, religion and law; a Hindu scholar.

* 1888 , (Rudyard Kipling), ‘On the City Wall’, In Black and White , Folio Society 2005, p. 430:

Pundits in black gowns, with spectacles on their noses and undigested wisdom in their insides; bearded headmen of the wards; [...] all these people and more also you might find in the white room.

(historical) A native surveyor in British India, trained to carry out clandestine surveillance beyond British borders.

* 1990 , (Peter Hopkirk), The Great Game , Folio Society 2010, p. 295:

At every hundredth pace the Pundit would automatically slip one bead. Each complete circuit of the rosary thus represented ten thousand paces.

A self-professed expert in a particular field, especially as called upon to provide comment or opinion in the media; a commentator, a critic.

* 2006 , The Observer , 4 Jun 2006:

This week we introduce Jenny Walker, who will be The Observer's expert pundit for the duration of the World Cup.