Expert vs Specialist?

Question

I have looked up both words and I still can not figure out which one is the title for the more qualified person. An example would be a business loan "expert" or "specialist", which one is the more qualified person???

OMG, one answer for each! Thanks guys! Come on people help me out!

Answer 1

My impression is that "specialist" explicitly suggests only a narrowing of focus to a particular focus, which hopefully results in the person becoming expert within it.

"Expert" on the other hand does not suggest that the person's knowledge is tightly focused on a subject but rather only suggests that one has advanced knowledge of the topic.

So a physician who is qualified as "specialist" in say dermatology, will not be expected to have in depth knowledge of psychiatry or neurology. On the other hand, a bank officer who hopes to advance, probably should become "expert" in a variety of areas, unless s/he intends to remain narrowly focused on a single product line, such as "business loans".

Answer 2

Expertise is the outcome of specializing activities. If one specializes on business loan processing, he would eventually become an expert of it. When you specialize in business loan processing, your attention is focused on that activity and that requires closely studying the details involved in the process. The consequential effect of this work is that you would eventually become and expert in it.

Expertise is a qualification while specialization is not. Therefore you can not compare both.

But to answer your question as to who is more qualified, the "expert" or the "specialist", the former is.

Answer 3

Specialist

Answer 4

expert

Answer 5

expert, go for it

Answer 6

SPECIALIST