naturalist

From natural +‎ -ist.^[1] Piecewise doublet of naturalista.

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naturalist (plural naturalists)

2. (obsolete, except as merged with later senses) A natural philosopher; a scientist. [16th–19th c.]
   • 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:

     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.

4. (philosophy) A person who believes in or advocates the tenets of philosophical or methodological naturalism. [from 16th c.]
6. An expert in natural history or the study of plants and animals. [from 17th c.]
   • 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^[1], 1835 edition, Turin: Joseph Bocca, page 236:

     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.

8. (art) A creative artist who attempts to faithfully represent nature; an adherent of artistic naturalism. [from 19th c.]

naturalist (comparative more naturalist, superlative most naturalist)

1. Synonym of naturalistic.
   • 1985 July 21, Eleanor Charles, “Connecticut Guide”, in The New York Times‎^[2], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 24 May 2015:

     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.

   • 2008 August 23, Carmen Callil, “Agony by agony”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian‎^[3], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 3 February 2014, page 17, columns 1 and 4:

     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.

   • 2019 July 6, Bill Addison, “Has the curse on a storied Melrose restaurant space finally lifted?”, in Los Angeles Times‎^[4], Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles Times Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 6 July 2019:

     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.

• natural history on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “naturalist”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Borrowed from French naturaliste.

naturalist m (plural naturaliști, feminine equivalent naturalistă)

1. naturalist

• “naturalist”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2025