fine whine

I realize that this is both likely blatantly obvious and also a question nobody would consider pondering. This matters not to me.

Jessica and I were wandering around the neighborhood, talking about jobs and stuff, when it came to me that there is no obvious verb for 'what epidemiologists do' (epidemiologe? I don't know how it would be spelled but it sounded right for a brief moment), nor technologists, dentists, or any other -ists that came to mind. I came to wonder if there were any -ists at all that were based on a verb form in the manner of the -ers and others out there, and couldn't think of a single one. Could it be that this is some sort of definitive rule without exception, that rarest of beast in the rules of English grammar? Could it?

For a good ten or fifteen minutes I contemplated this -ist phenomenon. And then I mentally shelved the whole thing, lacking any new insight.

So if you have any thoughts on the matter, please leave a comment. This matters to me. A little.