What's in a Name? (Astrologian Ver.)

[Anonymoose]

Yes yes, but what is the real world difference between the two, if any?

If any, I'd assume it's subjective and fluid. I mean, what's the difference between terrible and terrific? Send that question through a time machine, see if they're curious about your thoughts on the difference between awful and awesome.

For the sake of argument, though? LLLLET'S GET READY TO RAMBLEEEEEEE!

Theologer, theologist, and theologian have all been used in the past in different times and places, but was there a difference in anything but style?

If you aim to pin down the difference, if any, between Astrologer, Astrologist, and Astrologian, try to answer this question: What is the difference between someone who is an (-er), an (-ist), and an (-ian)? You can try rigid syntax, saying that (-er) attaches to verbs and (-ist) attaches to nouns and (-ian) attaches to fields... but how well does that theory hold in practice? Even if you get that far, you fall into a pit of shifting semantic relationships between what you do and what you know and who you are. Are all singers vocalists? What would make either or both a musician?

I don't know much about the Japanese difference, but it looks like there's a slight not-mutually-exclusive difference between skilled and knowledgeable. Ishgardians possess the ability to read the stars to divine the future, Sharlayans possess the knowledge of the spheres required to harness their power. Which one's the Astrologian? To use a different field of study, what if Ishgardians were wonderful gardeners whereas the Sharlayans were knowledgeable horticulturalists, but both were going by the name "Botanist?"

Technique is not always academia, and I suspect that has something to do with the difference between Isghardian Astrologians(士) and Sharlayan Astrologians(師), and why they chose to keep the words pronounced the same in both languages to preserve the insanely hard to articulate nuance, even if it's quite easy to point at them and say, "THAT is not THAT!"