Newbie: finding the key/index of the min/max element

[Alex Martelli]

James J. Besemer wrote:
        ...
> based on your description, this "ista" suffix seems to be a rather complex
> and subtle idiom that
> you admit even confuses you sometimes.  I suspect most non-Spanish
> speaking people, Americans or otherwise, would be ignorant of most of this
> nuance.

An '-ista' suffix is just as common in Italian as in Spanish.  The Italian
equivalent for most English words with an '-ist' suffix has it: egoista,
altruista, idealista, imperialista.  (Not *all* -- we don't say 
'scientista', 'chimista', 'fisicista', but rather 'scienziato', 'chimico', 
'fisico').  Plus, we use it for many words related to jobs (a few also have 
'-ist' in English, e.g. 'dentista'): tassista is a taxi driver, fiorista a 
seller of flowers, barista a bartender.

It's so widely use (and the exceptions so appearingly random -- I have no
idea "why" 'farmacista' is a common word but 'biologista' doesn't exist
and 'biologo' is used instead) that it's hard to define "the nuance".  I
suspect each variety of Spanish has similar issues.  Anyway, just wanted
to point out that a LOT of 'non-Spanish speaking people' have their own
connotations for the '-ista' suffix -- at least all Italian-speaking ones
(and I think Portuguese-speakers too -- isn't "Paulista" somebody from the
city of Sao Paulo, Brazil?).


Alex