Editing Geographer (section)

{{Short description|Scholar whose area of study is geography}}
{{for multi|the musical group|Geographer (band)|the 17th-century painting|The Geographer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2021}}

[[File:The Geographer.jpg|thumb|''[[The Geographer]]'' (1668–69), by [[Johannes Vermeer]] ]]

A '''geographer''' is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is [[geography]], the study of Earth's [[natural environment]] and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" and the Greek suffix, "graphy", meaning "description", so a geographer is someone who studies the earth.<ref>{{cite book |last=Arrowsmith |first=Aaron |author-link=Aaron Arrowsmith |date=1832 |title=A Grammar of Modern Geography |chapter=Chapter II: The World |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N1XWyAVQJh0C |publisher=[[King's College School]] |pages=20–21 |access-date=4 October 2021 |archive-date=4 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211004030824/https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_grammar_of_modern_geography_With_Praxi/N1XWyAVQJh0C |url-status=live }}</ref> The word "geography" is a [[Middle French]] word that is believed to have been first used in 1540.<ref>{{Cite web |date=n.d. |title=geography (n.) |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/geography |access-date=10 October 2018 |website=Online Etymology Dictionary |publisher=Douglas Harper |format=Web article |archive-date=1 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170801043319/http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=geography |url-status=live }}</ref>

Although geographers are historically known as people who make [[maps]], map making is actually the field of study of [[cartography]], a subset of geography. Geographers do not study only the details of the natural environment or human society, but they also study the reciprocal relationship between these two. For example, they study how the natural environment contributes to human society and how human society affects the natural environment.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Pedley |editor-first1=Mary Sponberg |editor-last2=Edney |editor-first2=Matthew H. |editor-link2=Matthew H. Edney |date=2020 |title=The History of Cartography, Volume 4: Cartography in the European Enlightenment |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m9fkDwAAQBAJ |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |pages=557–558 |isbn=9780226339221 |access-date=4 October 2021 |archive-date=4 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211004030825/https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_History_of_Cartography_Volume_4/m9fkDwAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In particular, physical geographers study the natural environment while human geographers study human society and culture. Some geographers are practitioners of GIS ([[geographic information system]]) and are often employed by local, state, and federal government agencies as well as in the private sector by environmental and engineering firms.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Geographers : Occupational Outlook Handbook : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics|url=https://www.bls.gov/ooh/life-physical-and-social-science/mobile/geographers.htm|access-date=2021-10-06|website=www.bls.gov}}</ref>

The paintings by [[Johannes Vermeer]] titled ''[[The Geographer]]'' and ''[[The Astronomer (Vermeer)|The Astronomer]]'' are both thought to represent the growing influence and rise in prominence of scientific enquiry in Europe at the time of their painting in 1668–69.