papist
(ˈpeɪpɪst)
[a. F. papiste (1525 in Godef. Compl.), or ad. 16th c. L. pāpista, f. pāpa pope: see -ist.]
1. An adherent of the pope; esp. an advocate of papal supremacy; also, more generally, a member of the Roman Catholic Church; a Roman Catholic or Romanist. (Usually hostile or opprobrious.)
| [1521 Fisher Serm. agst. Luther Wks. (1876) 344 The popes holynes & his fauourers, whom he [Luther] calleth so often in derisyon papistas, papastros, & papanos, & papenses.] 1534 (title) A Litel Treatise ageynst the Mutterynge of some Papistis in Corners. 1657 J. Sergeant Schism Dispach't 656 'Tis clear that al Roman-Catholikes, that is, all Communicants with the Church of Rome or Papists (as they call them) hold the substance of the Pope's Authority. 1699 Tanner 28 Apr. in Pepys' Diary (1879) VI. 186 The Papists and other enemies of the Ch. of England. 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. xx. Il. 152 note, In the beginning of the last century, the Papists of England were only a thirtieth, and the Protestants of France only a fifteenth part of the respective nations. 1891 Times 10 Oct. 5/3 In spite of the clamour of the extreme Papists, the Vatican recognized that it had still to look to the Italian Government for protection. |
2. attrib. or quasi-adj. = papal.
| 1819 Lady Morgan Autobiog. (1859) 277 There, and in the bright hopes that opened to them of getting rid of papist government, it is that Bonaparte is a loss to Europe. |
3. (With capital initial) An imitator or follower of the poet, Alexander Pope. Also attrib.
| a 1849 H. Coleridge Ess. & Marginalia (1851) II. 118 Nor would so many really monotonous jinglers have passed for correct, orthodox Papists. 1902 F. Harrison John Ruskin ii. 22 Many a prize poem has had worse couplets in the Papist vein than these on Etna. |
Hence ˈpapistlike a.; ˈpapistly adv.
| 1579 Fulke Refut. Rastel 739 To reason from the authoritie of men negatiuely, is Papistlike. 1716 M. Davies Athen. Brit. III. Diss. Drama 29 He was suspected to be a Papist or Papistly affected. |