Etymologically
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realist

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈɹɪəlɪst/[1]

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

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