naturalist

plural naturalists

1. obsoleteexcept as merged with later sensesA natural philosopher; a scientist.First known use 16th–19th c.

   It has also been asserted, by some naturalists, that men do not attain their full growth and strength till thirty; but that women arrive at maturity by twenty.

   1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1792, →OCLC

2. human sciencesA person who believes in or advocates the tenets of philosophical or methodological naturalism.First known use 16th c.
3. An expert in natural history or the study of plants and animals.First known use 17th c.

   The beauty and brilliancy of this insect are indescribable, and none but a naturalist can understand the intense excitement I experienced when I at length captured it.

   1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co.

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   I will leave off all my childish fooleries and diversions, and set about studying with such a rage, that when you come back next year, you may find the tongue I have now in my mouth more forky than that of some serpents mentioned by Pliny the naturalist.

   a. 1776, Joseph Baretti, “Dialogue the Fortieth”, in Easy Phraseology for the Use of Those Persons Who Intend to Learn the Colloquial Part of the Italian Language, 1835 edition, Turin: Joseph Bocca, page 236

4. artA creative artist who attempts to faithfully represent nature; an adherent of artistic naturalism.First known use 19th c.

comparative more naturalist · superlative most naturalist

1. Synonym of naturalistic.

   Trinity received “Birds of America” in 1900 as a gift from Dr. Gordon Russell, a physician and alumnus who was a collector of ornithological and naturalist art.

   1985 July 21, Eleanor Charles, “Connecticut Guide”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 24 May 2015

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   Its author – Henry Handel Richardson was the nom de plume of Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson – had indeed read, and on occasion translated, these great European writers and they provided the naturalist style and intellectual inquiry resonant in all her fiction. […] The honesty and authorial detachment that is so remarkable in her work – she is one of the least obtrusive, least judgmental of all the great naturalist writers – seems to come from a distance, almost as though the particularly acute insight of the adult writer could only be seen through the filter of childhood experience.

   2008 August 23, Carmen Callil, “Agony by agony”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 03 Feb 2014, page 17, columns 1 and 4

   The restaurant feels of-the-moment Los Angeles in its naturalist beauty (plants breathe life into the minimalist space) and its wide-open creativity, though much of Bost’s culinary background is steeped in grand French traditions.

   2019 July 6, Bill Addison, “Has the curse on a storied Melrose restaurant space finally lifted?”, in Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles Times Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 06 Jul 2019

   Synonyms: naturalistic