scarabaeistn.
One who studies the Scarabæidæ. See quot. 1872; in allusion to this passage the word is sometimes used derisively for a narrow specialist.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > zoology > study of specific types of animal > [noun] > insects > specific insects > one who
aurelian1778
lepidopterist1826
coleopterist1852
neuropterist1869
hymenopterologist1870
scarabaeist1872
curculionist1874
aphidologist1876
myrmecologist1879
orthopterist1880
hymenopterist1881
lepidopterologist1899
drosophilist1961
1872 O. W. Holmes Poet at Breakfast-table ii ‘I suppose you are an entomologist?’.. ‘Not quite so ambitious as that, sir... I am often spoken of as a Coleopterist,..but I have no right to so comprehensive a name... Call me a Scarabeeist if you will.’
1883 Athenæum 24 Mar. 380/1 If only it can convince the ‘scarabæist’ that there are realms of wonder and of interest beyond the limits of his own domain.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1910; most recently modified version published online December 2020).
<
n.1872