free-willern.
/ˌfriːˈwɪlə/, U.S. /ˌfriˈwɪlər/ Usually derogatory.
A person who believes in the doctrine of free will, an Arminian.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > will > free will > [noun] > one who holds the doctrine of
free-willer1614
Frank-arbitrian1633
volent1768
libertarian1789
free-willist1867
1614 J. Robinson Of Relig. Communion 96 I would know of these free-willers, how some become the children of God, & beleevers, & some abyde vnder the wrath of God?
1685 J. Bunyan Disc. Pharisee & Publicane 38 So again, the Free-willer, he will ascribe all to God; the Quaker, the Ranter, the Socinian, &c. will ascribe all to God.
1709 J. Strype Ann. Reformation lii. 562 Using therein the new coined phrase of free-willers.
1732 D. Neal Hist. Puritans I. iii. 105 Besides these Free-Willers, it seems there were some few in Prison for the Gospel that were Arians.
1814 Chron. in Ann. Reg. 534 Indeed, at the time alluded to, Freewillers were persecuted as heretics.
1827 H. Hallam Constit. Hist. Eng. I. vii. 434 Those who did not hold the predestinarian theory were branded with reproach by the names of free-willers and Pelagians.
1875 Presbyterian Q. & Princeton Rev. Jan. 85 The Fatalist cannot avoid being a Free-willer, the Idealist a Realist in speech and action.
1938 E. I. Fripp Shakespeare II. 665 The villain of the play, like Iago, is a ‘free-willer’ such as the Protestant theologians regarded with horror.
1992 Brit. Jrnl. Sociol. 43 385 The more compelling view..depicts Baxter not as a free-willer but as a Calvinist.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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