Voltairean

comparative more Voltairean · superlative most Voltairean · alternative Voltairian

1. human sciencesOf or pertaining to François-Marie Arouet (1694-1778; pen name "Voltaire"), French writer, essayist, and philosopher known for his wit and defence of civil liberties.

   […] the skinny boy at the next table smirked with a thin Voltairian sneer.

   1988, Edmund White, chapter 1, in The Beautiful Room is Empty, New York: Vintage International, published 1994

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   "What do you want? Nineteenth-century rationalism, Voltairian deism? We're living in a religious age, you know. I suppose Anglicanism might be a solution."

   1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 448

plural Voltaireans · alternative Voltairian

1. human sciencesA person who subscribes to the philosophy of Voltaire.

   “[…] But as for saints and relics and things, I fear I'm a bit of a Voltairian; what you would call a skeptic.”

   1922, G. K. Chesterton, chapter 3, in The Man Who Knew Too Much

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   Then hearing that I was a Darwaysh and doctor—he must be an Osmanli Voltairean, that little Turk—the official snorted a contemptuous snort.

   1855, Richard Francis Burton, chapter II, in A Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah, volume I, London: Tylston & Edwards, published 1893, page 21