idealist

Etymology

It is formed from English ideal + -ist,^{[1][2][3][4][5]} partly from the adjective and partly from the noun, and in later use after idealism.^[1] The OED compares French idéaliste (before 1716), German Idealist (1732), post-classical Latin idealista (1734) and Italian idealista (before 1754), which all began in the philosophical sense.^[1] Ideal is from Late Latin ideālis (“existing in idea”),^[6][7][2] from Latin idea (“Platonic idea, archetype”),^[2][6] from Ancient Greek ἰδέα (idéa, “form, the look of a thing”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A believer in ideas in the Platonic or theological sense: 1701, in John Norris's Essay Towards the Theory of the Ideal or Intelligible World,^[1][5][2] a use the OED records until 1737.^[1] Merriam-Webster Unabridged has 1803 as its first date, for an adherent of philosophical idealism.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word began as a term of philosophy for followers of schools that gave ideas the main role in explaining reality.^[5] For an adherent of idealism in the modern philosophical sense, the OED has it from 1803,^[1] and Etymonline from 1796, in F. A. Nitsch's account of Kant.^[2] Soon after, in 1805, it was used for someone who idealizes, and for an artist or writer who treats a subject imaginatively rather than realistically, in contrast with a realist.^[1][3] From 1829, in Bulwer-Lytton's Disowned, it could mean someone who pursues ideals,^[1][2] often with the disparaging sense of holding unpractical notions,^[1][4] and Dictionary.com considers this the commonest use today.^[5] The OED notes that the same sense arose in French in 1839 and in German by 1846.^[1]

Timeline

• 1701 – a believer in ideas in the Platonic or theological sense (obsolete by 1737).^[1][5]
• 1803 – an adherent of philosophical idealism.^[1][3] Etymonline has it from 1796.^[2]
• 1805 – a person given to idealizing; an imaginative rather than realistic artist or writer.^[1]
• 1829 – a person who pursues ideals, or who holds unpractical notions.^[1][2]
• 1856 – adjective, idealistic, in Ruskin's Modern Painters.^[1][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person guided by ideals, especially one who puts them before practical concerns; a visionary or dreamer: He was too much of an idealist to run a business.^[3][1][4]
2. An adherent of philosophical idealism.^[3][1][4]
3. An artist or writer who treats a subject imaginatively rather than realistically; opposed to realist.^[3][1]
4. A person who idealizes someone or something.^[4][1]

Adjective

1. Idealistic.^[3][1]

Word family

• idealistic

Related words

• idea
• idealism
• ideal

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology