abstractionist
English edit
Etymology edit
abstraction + -ist
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
abstractionist (comparative more abstractionist, superlative most abstractionist)
- Related or tending to abstractionism, particularly art.
Translations edit
Related to abstract art
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Noun edit
abstractionist (plural abstractionists)
- An idealist. [First attested in the mid 19th century.][1]
- 1844, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nominalist and Realist”, in Essays, Second Series:
- She punishes abstractionists, and will only forgive an induction which is rare and casual.
- 1850, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Montaigne; or, the Skeptic”, in Representative Men:
- If you come near them and see what conceits they entertain,—they are abstractionists, and spend their days and nights in dreaming some dream; in expecting the homage of society to some precious scheme, built on a truth, but destitute of proportion in its presentment, of justness in its application, and of all energy of will in the schemer to embody and vitalize it.
- 1913, Charles Francis Adams, ’Tis Sixty Years Since, New York: The Macmillan Company, page 15:
- In this all-important respect I do not hesitate to say we theorists and abstractionists of the North, throughout that long anti-slavery discussion which ended with the 1861 dash of arms, were thoroughly wrong.
- (art) Someone who supports or creates abstract art.
Translations edit
someone who paints or creates abstract art
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an idealist
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References edit
- ^ Lesley Brown, editor-in-chief, William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, editors (2002), “abstractionist”, in The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 5th edition, Oxford, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 10.