individualistn.adj.
/ˌɪndᵻˈvɪdʒʊəlɪst/, /ˌɪndᵻˈvɪdʒᵿlɪst/, /ˌɪndᵻˈvɪdʒl̩ɪst/, /ˌɪndᵻˈvɪdjʊəlɪst/, /ˌɪndᵻˈvɪdjᵿlɪst/, U.S. /ˌɪndəˈvɪdʒ(ə)wələst/, /ˌɪndəˈvɪdʒələst/ A. n.
1. An independent or self-reliant person; a person who pursues his or her goals without reference to others, or whose thoughts or actions are not affected or influenced by others.Sometimes with negative connotations of self-centredness or antisocial behaviour.rugged individualist: see the first element.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > kind or sort > individual character or quality > [noun] > peculiarity of constitution > strongly marked individual character > person
individualist1826
freelance1854
1826 Illinois Gaz. 19 Aug. The equalites..grow bolder and bolder in their argumentations for taking the surplus of the individualists.
1856 C. Kingsley Hours with Mystics in Misc. (1860) I. 351 The Pharisee becomes a selfish individualist just because he has forgotten this.
1883 C. Beard Reformation vi. 189 The Anabaptists were the individualists of the Reformation.
1920 W. H. Wilson in L. W. Rapeer Consolidated Rural School iii. 55 As American individualists live very much in society there have been many clashes and conflicts between their theories of the freedom of the individual will and the obligations of an organized society.
1951 Yale French Stud. No. 7. 17 The incurable individualist and non-conformist happened to be the most sought after artist of our time.
1989 C. Harkness Time of Grace iv. 63 You're not cut out for institutions. You're too much of an individualist and you don't like rules and regulations.
2006 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 10 Sept. iv. 11/3 We are not a group of prickly individualists itching to answer affronts with gunfire.
2.
a. A person who advocates the free and independent action of individuals in economic and social affairs, in preference to collective or state control; an advocate of the theory of individualism (individualism n. 2b). Opposed to collectivist, socialist.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > moral philosophy > social ethics > [noun] > individualism and its adherents
individualism1840
individualist1846
1846 Liberator (Boston) 22 May 84/3 The probable objection of the individualist, that a concession of the demands of necessity would reduce us to beggary.
1869 Sheffield & Rotherham Independent 14 Sept. 6/5 Mollin (Paris) desired to reconcile the individualists with the collectivists.
1888 Pall Mall Gaz. 10 Sept. 3/2 To hold the scales between individualists and Socialists.
1923 Q. Jrnl. Econ. 37 587 It would go a long way toward clarifying discussion if it were generally recognized on both sides that there are no one-hundred-per-cent individualists and no one-hundred-per-cent socialists.
1979 D. D. Roberts Syndicalist Trad. & Ital. Fascism 73 Despite their antistatism.., the syndicalists were hardly anti-authoritarian individualists.
2012 L. A. Frederik Trumpets in Mountains i. 68 In its theoretical form, socialist morality was difficult to critique: cooperation and equality were ideals few would reject, even the most vehement of individualists.
b. In the context of the cooperative movement: a person who believes that individual businesses should be run as separate cooperatives for the benefit of their employees. Opposed to federalist. Now historical and rare.
ΚΠ
1873 G. J. Holyoake Logic of Co-operation 14 Every manufactory conducted by individualists must compete.
1891 B. Potter Co-operative Movement Great Brit. iii. 75 The term Individualist has been used within the Co-operative movement for the last twenty years to denote that school of Co-operators who insist that each separate manufacturing establishment shall be governed (and if possible owned) by those who work therein; the profits being divided among these working proprietors.
1919 L. Smith-Gordon & L. C. Staples Rural Reconstr. in Ireland xiii. 224 The individualists, who believe in the organization of man in his productive capacity, and the federalists, who refer everything to the standpoint of the consumer.
2000 B. J. Blaszak Matriarchs of England's Cooperative Movement i. 57 Employee profit-sharing and worker-controlled workshops were highly controversial issues within the Cooperative movement in the last two decades of the nineteenth century. They divided the movement into two camps, the individualists and the federalists.
B. adj.
1. Characterized by individualism (individualism n. 2a); independent, self-reliant; = individualistic adj. 1.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > kind or sort > individual character or quality > [adjective] > individualistic
individualist1839
individualistic1847
super-individualist1915
1839 Brit. & Foreign Rev. 9 239 The almost general tendency to react against the individualist thought of the eighteenth century.
1892 Times 26 Nov. 9/2 The cautious individualist development of colonization in Australia or North America.
1908 Q. Rev. Apr. 361 Patmore, the self-confident individualist, the arrogant, the masterful, seems here to be not quite individualist enough.
1974 R. Durgnat Jean Renoir xli. 238 The fiercely individualist American matriarch whom we find in, for example, Wild River.
2007 B. Wasef Legendary Motorcycles xvi. 108 ‘You're more likely to succeed if you choose what you want to design,’ Britten would later say, recalling the individualist attitude that would become an overarching theme of his work.
2. Of or relating to the theory of individualism (individualism n. 2b) or its adherents; organized or run according to this theory.
ΚΠ
1849 N.Y. Daily Tribune 9 Oct. 1/3 The terrible notices of crime and the abuses of speculation disturb the Malthusian political economy in its individualist dreams.
1884 Guardian 24 Sept. 1410/3 The individualist theory of society cut away these restrictions, holding that the State is only concerned to prevent its members injuring each other.
1920 Polit. Sci. Q. 35 485 The candid analysis of the chief objections to socialism which the champions of an individualist society have usually raised.
1980 Ethics 90 211 The individualist assumption of the economic model leads to certain bizarre conclusions.
1999 D. L. Cox et al. Women's Anger iv. 132 People from both collectivist and individualist countries develop a sense of self in relation to others.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adj.1826