reasonern.

1509 in T. Stapleton Plumpton Corr. (1839) 205 John Wythers, his Surveyor & generall Reasonner.

1546 S. Gardiner Declar. True Articles (new ed.) f. lxxiii^v Suche talkers and reasoners of goddes election and predestinacion, to persuade necessite, do it not for any godly fruite, but for a worldely lewde pollicie.

1551 T. Wilson Rule of Reason sig. Xv^v Vpon suche matters, as are necessary..for the godlye reasoner, to teache.

1573 R. Lever Arte of Reason iv. i. 137 So the quick and sharpe reasoner, must gather general rules together, and place them in order.

1604 T. Bilson Suruey Christs Sufferings 431 Keepe such reasons for your hellish mysteries, they haue no force in true religion, nor I think with any sober or well aduised reasoner.

1665 J. Sergeant Sure-footing in Christianity 112 All the Arguments brought by witty Reasoners against Tradition.

1702 in Rous's Academia Cœlestis Advt. sig. A3 By too many of the great Reasoners of the Age.

1741 W. Warburton Divine Legation Moses II. 642 Our Reasoner has here mistaken the very question.

1769 ‘Junius’ Stat Nominis Umbra (1772) I. xix. 129 A correspondent..censures him for a bad reasoner.

1816 B. Waterhouse Jrnl. Young Man Mass. (1911) xii. 396 Now Deacon John was a better reasoner than Simon, but Simon had the most cant; and he, of course prevailed.

1864 F. C. Bowen Treat. Logic ix. 271 The ambiguities of language which..originally led the reasoner astray.

1912 Catholic Encycl. XIV. 674/1 Will the scientists of to-day pretend to be better reasoners than St. Thomas, or more powerful in synthesis?

1934 R. B. McCallum in A. B. Brown Great Democrats 476 A severe reasoner and analyst he remained, but he was never the dry, didactic pedant that his opponents were incline to picture.

1999 A. MacIntyre Dependent Rational Animals xiii. 81 What then are the social relationships without which we cannot become independent practical reasoners?