realist

Etymology

It is formed from English real + -ist,^[2][3][4][5] after French réaliste;^[4][3][5] Merriam-Webster and Klein take it directly from the French word,^[6][7] which goes back to Middle French realiste.^[6] The OED dates the French noun to 1587 for an adherent of philosophical Realism and to 1837 and 1852 for a follower of literary and artistic realism, and compares German Realist from the end of the 18th century.^[2] Real is from Old French reel (“real, actual”), from Late Latin reālis (“actual”), from Latin rēs (“thing, matter”).^[3][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

In philosophy, an adherent of Realism, the doctrine opposed to nominalism: 1547, in John Hooper's Answer to a work on the Devil's sophistry.^[2] Etymonline dates the philosophical sense to the 17th century,^[3] and Dictionary.com dates the word to 1595–1605.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In the early 17th century a realist could also be a person concerned with things rather than words, a sense found only from 1605 to 1623.^[2][4] The everyday sense, a person who sees things as they really are rather than as they are imagined or wished to be, sometimes to the point of cynicism, appears in Coleridge's Biographia Literaria (1817).^[2] In the arts the word was used from 1868, in Swinburne, of a writer or artist devoted to realism,^[2] by 1870 in Etymonline.^[3] From 1930 it was applied to followers of legal or political realism.^[2] The adjective, relating to realists, is recorded from before 1832.^[2]

Timeline

• 1547 – an adherent of philosophical Realism.^[2]
• 1605 – a person concerned with things rather than words (obsolete by 1623).^[2][4]
• 1817 – a person who sees things as they really are.^[2]
• before 1832 – adjective, relating to realists.^[2]
• 1868 – an artist or writer who practises realism.^[2] Etymonline dates it to 1870.^[3]
• 1930 – an adherent of legal or political realism.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who accepts things as they are and deals with them in a practical way; a pragmatist: As a realist, she knew the team would not win the league that year.^[9][2][6]
2. An artist or writer who depicts life as it is, without idealizing it.^[9][2]
3. (philosophy) An adherent of realism, as opposed to a nominalist or an idealist.^[9][2][6]
4. An adherent of legal or political realism.^[2][4]
5. (obsolete, 1605–1623) A person concerned with things rather than words.^[2][4]

Adjective

1. Relating to realists or realism; realistic.^[6][9][2]

Word family

• antirealist
• hyperrealist
• nonrealist
• ultrarealist

Related words

• real
• realism
• realistic
• reality

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f 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 Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins