intellectualistn.adj.
/ˌɪntᵻˈlɛktʃʊəlɪst/, /ˌɪntᵻˈlɛktʃᵿlɪst/, /ˌɪntᵻˈlɛktʃl̩ɪst/, /ˌɪntᵻˈlɛktjʊəlɪst/, /ˌɪntᵻˈlɛktjᵿlɪst/, U.S. /ˌɪn(t)əˈlɛk(t)ʃ(əw)əˌlɪst/ A. n.
A devotee of the intellect or understanding; Philosophy an adherent of intellectualism (intellectualism n. 2).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > rationalism > [noun] > intellectualism and its adherents
intellectualist1605
intellectualism1829
the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > intellectual superiority > [noun] > intellectual person
illuminate1602
intellectualist1605
intelligence1648
intellectual1652
aerialist1778
intellect1842
intellectuality1863
cerebralist1890
highbrow1898
longhair1920
egghead1952
boffin1954
boff1984
1605 F. Bacon Of Aduancem. Learning i. sig. G2 Vpon these Intellectualists, which are notwithstanding commonly taken for the most sublime and diuine Philosophers; Heraclitus gave a iust censure, saying: Men sought truth in their owne little worlds, and not in the great and common world. View more context for this quotation
1666 Bp. S. Parker Free Censvre Platonick Philos. 59 These pure and Seraphick Intellectualists forsooth despise all sensible knowledge, as too gross and material for their nice and curious Faculties.
1802 Ld. Campbell Let. 19 Aug. in Life I. iii. 92 I gain admission to the richest banquet ever served up to the longing intellectualist.
1831 Fraser's Mag. 3 582 Mr. Godwin is an Intellectualist, and his reasoning is speculative, a mode of ratiocination which makes a man doubt.
1865 W. E. H. Lecky Hist. Rationalism II. vi. 346 The intellectualist and the art critic were replaced by men of saintly lives but of persecuting zeal.
1881 Nation (N.Y.) 32 791 The great quarrel between the Intellectualists and the Sensationalists in vision.
1933 Times 9 Jan. 14/2 A naturalness in expression which made all the intellectualists seem mere fumblers.
1993 R. Westbrook John Dewey & Amer. Democracy 135 The intellectualists were left without any positive theory of the relationship between truth and verification.
B. adj.
Of or relating to intellectualism or intellectualists; of the nature of an intellectualist.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > intellectual superiority > [adjective]
intellectual1732
bluestocking1832
long-haired1842
intellectualist1857
high-browed1876
highbrow1884
intellectualistic1887
minority1930
egg-headed1957
eggheadish1963
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > rationalism > [adjective] > of other doctrines and their adherents
intelligiblea1398
intellectualist1857
illuministic1860
noetic1882
1857 T. E. Webb Intellectualism of Locke iv. 71 The views which have influenced Locke's Intellectualist opponents from the time of Stillingfleet and Leibnitz to the present.
1890 W. James Princ. Psychol. II. xxii. 325 The traditional intellectualist philosophy has always made a great point of treating the brutes as wholly irrational creatures.
1941 J. S. Huxley Uniqueness of Man ii. 76 Men..of an intellectualist and academic type.
2001 Nature 12 July 120/3 There was a powerful intellectualist reaction against this view in the postwar years, associated particularly with the historian of science Alexandre Koyré.
Derivatives
inteˌllectuaˈlistic adj. of or relating to intellectualists or intellectualism.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > intellectual superiority > [adjective]
intellectual1732
bluestocking1832
long-haired1842
intellectualist1857
high-browed1876
highbrow1884
intellectualistic1887
minority1930
egg-headed1957
eggheadish1963
1887 T. Whittaker in Mind July 455 What may be called spiritualistic or intellectualistic pantheism.
1919 Times 4 Aug. 13/1 This underlying and unifying principle in intellectualistic inquiry is of immediate practical significance for an age which has to reconstruct social life and thought.
1989 J. Newman Journalist in Plato's Cave iv. 111 His idea of liberation is too much tied to an idealistic metaphysic and an intellectualistic conception of self-realization.
inteˌllectuaˈlistically adv.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > intellectual superiority > [adverb]
intellectualistically1907
1907 W. James Pragmatism iii. 121 Yet dark tho they be in themselves [sc. the words God, free-will, etc.], or intellectualistically taken, when we bear them into life's thicket with us the darkness there grows light about us.
1927 L. Stein A.B.C. of Æsthetics i. 10 No one can get much good out of my book who reads it intellectualistically.
1993 T. L. S. Sprigge James & Bradley i. iv. 181 Its claims must, therefore, be assessed empirically rather than argued over intellectualistically.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adj.1605