humanistn.adj.
/ˈhjuːmənɪst/, U.S. /ˈhjumənəst/ A. n.† 3. Theology. A person believing that Christ's nature was human only and not divine; = humanitarian n. 1a. Cf. humanism n. 2. Obsolete.
1.
a. A person who pursues or is expert in the study of the humanities, esp. a classical scholar. Also (Scottish): spec. a Latinist, a professor or teacher of Latin (now rare).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > branch of knowledge > humanistic studies > [noun] > student of
humanist1589
1589 A. Fleming in tr. Virgil Bucolikes Ep. sig. A2v Considering the expositors drift to consist in deliuering a direct order of construction for the releefe of weake Grammatists, not in attempting by curious deuise and disposition, to content courtly Humanists.
1596 J. Harington New Disc. Aiax sig. E5v I might repute him as a good humanist, but I shoulde euer doubt him for a good deuine.
1605 F. Bacon Of Aduancem. Learning ii. sig. Kk4 Antiquaries, Poets, Humanists, States-men, Marchants, Diuines. View more context for this quotation
1610 J. Healey tr. J. L. Vives in tr. St. Augustine Citie of God xv. viii. 542 The humanists cannot agree [L. inter prophanos scriptores..non convenit] about the first city-founder.
1670 S. Wilson Lassels's Voy. Italy (new ed.) ii. 361 Of this towne was Cœlius Rodiginus..and Bonifacius Bonifacij an other learned humanist.
1691 A. Wood Athenæ Oxonienses II. 283 Jeremy Taylor..was a rare Humanist.
1755 S. Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang. Humanist, a philologer; a grammarian: a term used in the schools of Scotland.
1782 in T. Orem Descr. of Chanonry in Old Aberdeen in Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica No. 3. iii. 136 Patrick Gordon..was made civilist at the King's restoration; and..exchanged the said office with this office of humanist [= Professor of Humanity].
a1792 W. Beawes Hist. Spain & Portugal (1793) I. xvii. 378 Zerda found him so high, among the other Nations, in his Commentary on Virgil, that Pope Urban VIII, a great Humanist,..sent to ask for his Picture.
1817 J. Brown Gospel Truth Stated (1831) 70 What he was for a humanist..his translation of his own work..into good Roman Latin will abundantly testify.
1876 J. Grant Hist. Burgh Schools Scotl. ii. xiii. 366 In 1620 he [sc. the Master of the grammar School]..was nominated grammarian or humanist in King's college.
1959 Listener 5 Mar. 428/2 While the scientists press on regardless, the humanists go on worrying.
1960 Guardian 13 June 5/2 The innumerate humanist and the unliterate scientist were equally inadequate.
2002 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 26 Sept. 6/2 The institute formed a home for a wide variety of German-speaking humanists trying to continue or restart their interrupted careers in an Anglo-American environment.
b. Frequently with capital initial. Any of the scholars or educators of the early modern period whose work depended on attentiveness to classical Latin (and, later in the period, Greek), as expressed in, e.g., the rediscovery, editing, or discussion of ancient texts, the imitation of their style in original compositions, and the dissemination of some or all of the wide range of cultural ideals which they were supposed to transmit. Cf. humanism n. 3b.Applications of the noun in this sense to classical scholars earlier than the generation of Petrarch (1304–74) or later than the early 17th cent. are rare, and tend to shade into sense A. 1a.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > branch of knowledge > humanistic studies > [noun] > student of > specifically in renaissance
humanist1797
Renaissancist1895
1797 tr. E. Gibbon Jrnl. in Misc. Wks. VI. 247 The humanists [1764 Fr. humanistes] of the fifteenth century revived the knowledge of the ancients.
1849 Times 23 Mar. 8/1 Every eminent Humanist in the North of Europe was, according to the measure of his uprightness and courage, a Reformer.
1870 J. R. Seeley Lect. & Ess. 135 Milton lived in antiquity as much as any fifteenth-century humanist.
1895 Dublin Rev. Oct. 318 A society of heathen-minded Humanists under the presidency of..Pomponius Laetus.
1926 Amer. Mercury July 348/1 The great humanists, such as More, Erasmus, Scaliger, and Rabelais, created a new home for the spirit.
1963 N. W. Gilbert Renaissance Concepts of Method i. iii. 68 The Humanists, in their struggle against the ‘useless disputations’ of the Schoolmen, offered their own educational programs.
2000 Renaissance No. 17. 65/1 He promoted laymen and Humanists to the cardinalate, gathering around him the key reforming intellectuals of the day.
2. A student of human affairs, or of human nature; (in early use) spec. †a writer on secular rather than divine matters (obsolete). Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > study of society > [noun] > one who studies society
humanista1734
sociologist1843
social scientist1865
sociologue1891
1603 J. Florio tr. M. de Montaigne Ess. i. lvi. 175 Divines write too humanely, then this other, that humanists write not Theologically enough.
1617 F. Moryson Itinerary iii. 11 The Humanist, I meane him that affects the knowledge of State affaires, Histories [etc.].
1653 S. Fisher Παιδοβαπτιζοντες Παιδιζοντες: Baby-baptism 587 How great is the multitude of meer Humanists, that feed onely upon the common Theory of that Theology they have framed to themselves, and relish nothing but what is of man?
1711 Ld. Shaftesbury Characteristicks I. iii. 272 But to a just Naturalist or Humanist, who knows the Creature Man,..it appears evidently that we British Men were as barbarous and unciviliz'd in respect of the Romans under a Cæsar.
a1734 R. North Examen (1740) iii. vi. §36 449 What a Discovery is it..that Vice raged at Court? Is it not the Hackney Observation of all Humanists?
1863 C. C. Clarke Shakespeare-characters ix. 215 The ample wisdom and bland morality of such a humanist as Shakespeare.
1892 Internat. Jrnl. Ethics 2 263 This book consists of an interesting series of lectures on Carlyle, Mill, Emerson, Matthew Arnold, Ruskin, and Herbert Spencer, regarded as humanists or critics of life.
1987 Contemp. Sociol. 16 77/1 McLuhan was a humanist turned from inscape to outscape. Where Hemingway reduced good wine and the green hills of Africa to a reflection of his own mean feelings, McLuhan connected subjective experience with its contextual, technological landscape.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > aspects of faith > doctrine > doctrine concerning the Trinity > [noun] > concerning Christ, the Son > humanitarianism > person
humanist1792
humanitarian?1792
psilanthropist1817
1792 J. E. Hamilton Strictures upon Primitive Christianity II. 44 If the testimony of those Fathers, who support the modern Orthodox in their Trinitaran notions, be deemed by them to be conclusive against the Humanists; should not the testimony of the same Fathers be admitted to be conclusive evidence against.
1795 T. Howes Crit. Observ. on Bks. Antient & Mod. No. X. 18 [For] those who maintain the mere humanity of Christ,..I shall hereafter..use the more precise appellations of humanists.
1824 Monthly Repos. July 404/1 The word ‘Humanist’ is used..to distinguish the Unitarian who believes only in the real and proper humanity of Jesus Christ.
4. A believer in the principles of humanism (humanism n. 5); spec. (frequently with capital initial) a member or supporter of an organization devoted to the advancement of these principles; cf. sense B. 2b.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > pragmatism > [noun] > humanism > humanist
humanitarian1831
humanist1853
1853 Home Missionary May 144/2 This caused the Humanists to call a meeting, and by a majority..it was resolved that I should be no longer permitted to teach.
1860 J. Gardner Faiths World II. 76 Humanists, a class of thinkers which arose in Germany towards the end of the eighteenth century, originating chiefly from the diffusion of the writings of Rousseau..Their system..usually called Humanism..sought to level all family distinctions, all differences of rank, all nationality, all positive moral obligation, all positive religion, and to train mankind to be men, as..the highest accomplishment.
1888 B. R. Tucker tr. P. J. Proudhon Syst. Econ. Contradict. I. viii. 464, in Wks. IV God, according to the humanists, is nothing but humanity itself, the collective me to which the individual me is subjected as to an invisible master.
1908 I. Babbitt Lit. & Amer. College i. 8 The humanist, then, as opposed to the humanitarian, is interested in the perfecting of the individual rather than in schemes for the elevation of mankind as a whole.
1929 N.Y. Times 28 Sept. 22/1 There are Humanists in Japan and India, as well as the United States. New groups are rising in this country every month.
1944 G. Murray Myths & Ethics 3 By a Humanist I mean essentially one who accepts it as the special duty of Man, whether he has a ‘Friend behind phenomena’ or not, to raise life to some higher level and redeem the world from its misery.
1957 A. Ellis Let. 28 Apr. in I. L. Reiss & A. Ellis At Dawn of Sexual Revol. (2002) 65 My impression, like yours, is that many Reformed Jewish congregations are no more deistic than the Unitarians, Humanists, or Ethical Culturists; and I note that many of the liberal Protestant clergy are rapidly giving up god in favor of ethics.
1961 L. Elvin in J. S. Huxley Humanist Frame 272 The Humanist is content to leave it to the free play of thought, so long as thought is kept free.
1968 A. J. Ayer Humanist Outlook 4 Present-day humanists are in fact the intellectual heirs of those nineteenth-century free-thinkers.
1986 Jrnl. Southern Hist. 52 108 Martin considers Douglass as abolitionist, race patriarch, and egalitarian humanist.
2005 New Internationalist Mar. 2/1 As a Humanist and a non-theist Quaker, I reject dogmatism, whether religious or secular.
5. Philosophy. A proponent or follower of humanism (humanism n. 6). rare (now historical).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > pragmatism > [noun] > humanism > of Schiller and James > adherent of
humanist1903
1903 F. C. S. Schiller Humanism p. xxi A humanist philosopher is sure to be keenly interested in the rich variety of human thought and sentiment, and unwilling to ignore the actual facts for the sake of bolstering up the narrow abstractions of some a priori theory of what ‘all men must’ think and feel... The humanist, accordingly, will tend to grow humane, and tolerant of the divergences of attitude which must inevitably spring from the divergent idiosyncrasies of men.
1904 W. James in Mind 13 462 Bergson in France, and his disciples the physicists Wilbois and Leroy, are thorough-going humanists in the sense defined.
1997 P. Rae Pract. Muse i. 64 F. C. S. Schiller, the English humanist with whom James expressed a deep affinity.
B. adj.† 1. Theology. = humanitarian adj. 1. Obsolete. rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > aspects of faith > doctrine > doctrine concerning the Trinity > [adjective] > concerning Christ, the Son > humanitarian
humanist1790
psilanthropicc1816
humanitarianizing1831
humanitarian1833
1790 J. E. Hamilton Strictures upon Primitive Christianity I. 65 Paul of Samosate was the first proposer of the humanist notion.
2.
a. Of, relating to, or characteristic of humanism (humanism n. 5); humanistic.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > pragmatism > [adjective] > of humanism
humanist1854
humanistic1855
post-humanist1953
1854 T. Pearson Infidelity ii. iii. 390 Politically and socially they vary..from St. Simonianism with its somewhat hierarchical arrangement of classes, to the humanist theory, the latest form of socialism, with its intolerance of any vestige of inequality.
1891 Polit. Sci. Q. 6 635 The ‘philosopihe positive’ would be but a sorry fragment if left without a body of humanist doctrine to supplement biology.
1934 Theology 28 267 The humanist ethic..leads us to the blind alley of anthropocentrality.
1966 C. H. D. Clark Scientist & Supernatural v. 175 The humanist trust in reason alone is actually unreasonable, since logic would suggest that affluence and scientific advancement ought to be accompanied by increasing mental satisfaction.
1983 E. W. Said in R. Poirier Raritan Reading (1990) 307 Whether these alternatives for critical discourse are called ‘terrorist’ or ‘a new type of sublimity or an emerging transcendentalism’, there remains the need for the humanist critic.
2002 O. Figes Natasha's Dance (2003) vii. vii. 514 Zamyatin's science fiction drew from the Russian tradition to develop a humanist critique of the Soviet technological utopia.
2006 M. King & C. Thornhill Luhmann on Law & Politics iv. 94 His critique of humanist rationalism revolves around a quite fundamental opposition to the postulation of the rational human being as a prior source of political order.
b. spec. Frequently with capital initial. Designating an organization promoting, advocating, or adhering to the ethical theory and practice of humanism (humanism n. 5b); of or relating to such an organization or its principles.
ΚΠ
1929 Los Angeles Times 12 Jan. ii. 7/3 All Humanists, Ethical Culturists, Rationalists and Liberals generally who have no church affiliations are invited to co-operate in creating The Hollywood Humanist Society.
1929 Albuquerque (New Mexico) Jrnl. 30 Sept. 1/5 With prayer eliminated from the services and with God completely out of the picture, Dr. Charles Francis Potter Sunday led the first meeting of the First Humanist society.
1946 Sci. Monthly Apr. 315 One group, which organized what is now the American Humanist Association, issued in 1933 ‘A Humanist Manifesto’.
1965 Times 30 Aug. 5/1 (heading) Humanist counsellors to offer pastoral care to unbelievers.
1991 Gay Times Mar. 26/2 (advt.) The Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association... Join GALHA and help us promote a rational humanist approach to sexuality.
1997 N. Walter Humanism 86 Its admirably brief and clear statement of fundamental Humanist principle: Nothing above the human, and no human above another.
c. Of a wedding, funeral, or other ceremony: conducted in accordance with the principles of humanism. Also: designating a person who conducts such a ceremony.
ΚΠ
1929 Syracuse (N.Y.) Herald 3 Nov. i. 1/1 (heading) Pair compose own vows at humanist wedding.
1947 C. Lamont (title) Humanist funeral Service.
1987 Guardian (Nexis) 18 Nov. Hours are spent..trying to personalise the proceedings, for a humanist ceremony depends utterly on this.
1991 Resurgence Jan. 4/2 In the UK, humanist celebrants are available to conduct funerals.
2005 Independent on Sunday 19 June 3/3 Humanist weddings were legalised by the Registrar General for Scotland.
3.
a. Of or relating to the Renaissance humanists; (more generally) of or relating to the humanities.
ΚΠ
1881 G. W. Kitchin in Encycl. Brit. XII. 412/2 Italy, that holy land of Humanist enthusiasm.
1884 P. Schaff et al. Relig. Encycl. III. 2033 Among the humanist predecessors of the Reformation.
1927 Observer 19 June 13/1 He [sc. Machiavelli] was too great a realist for his intellect to suffer imprisonment by humanist admiration for Rome, or, as we call it today, romanità.
2003 D. R. Woolf Social Circulation of Past x. 390 The neglect of oral sources..was thus not the mark of methodological progress magically conjured up by humanist philology.
b. Palaeography. Of, relating to, or designating a simplified style of script developed from medieval book hands by Italian scholars during the early 15th cent.; = humanistic adj. 1b.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > writing > handwriting or style of > [noun] > others
plastograph1658
Merovingian1694
book hand1885
Lombardic1893
bastarda1894
micrographia1903
micrography1905
humanistic1911
bastard1920
rotunda1927
humanist1954
1954 Times 13 Aug. 9/3 An Italian manuscript in Latin,..written about 1470 in a good humanist script.
1960 Motif 5 69/1 Ghiberti must have been one of the pioneers in the evolution of humanist lettering.
1976 D. Gerard tr. L. Febvre & H. J. Martin Coming of Bk. iii. 82 Gradually, the fashion for humanist scripts, and the wide diffusion of Italian editions in which roman was used, made its victory inevitable.
1996 P. T. Daniels & W. Bright World’s Writing Syst. xxiv. 323 Humanist Miniscule is usually written small, with lengthened ascenders and descenders... Humanist Cursive..was devised by Niccolò Niccoli, ca. 1420.
2006 P. F. Grendler Renaissance Educ. iv. 21 Humanist roman script and humanist cursive script did not become standard until chanceries adopted them in the second half of the fifteenth century.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adj.1589