dogmatist
(ˈdɒgmətɪst)
[a. F. dogmatiste (16th c.), ad. med.L. dogmatista, ad. Gr. δογµατιστής, agent-n. from δογµατίζειν: see dogmatize. (The logical and chronological orders differ.)]
1. One who dogmatizes, who asserts or lays down particular dogmas; esp. one who positively asserts or imposes his own opinions; a dogmatic person.
| 1654 Whitlock Zootomia 565 That which Salomon delivered as a Dogmatist. 1661 Glanvill Scepsis Sci. xxiii. (R.), I expect but little success of all this upon the dogmatist, his opinion'd assurance is paramount to argument. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Dogmatist, one that dogmatizes, a dogmatical Teacher. 1741 Watts Improv. Mind i. i. §10 A dogmatist in religion is not a great way off from a bigot. 1775 Johnson Tax. no Tyr. 16 Many political dogmatists have denied to the Mother Country the power of taxing the Colonies. 1854 Kingsley Alexandria iv. 137 Dogmatists..men who assert a truth so fiercely, as to forget that a truth is meant to be used, and not merely asserted. |
† 2. A propounder of new opinions or doctrines. Obs.
| 1577–87 Holinshed Chron. II. 116 A councell assembled at Oxford, whereat those dogmatists were examined upon certeine points of their profession. 1656 Blount Glossogr., Dogmatist, he that induceth any new Sect or Opinion..a forger of new Sects. 1660 Bond Scut. Reg. 69 With this new upstart Doctrine have our Apocryphal Dogmatists in England led the rascal rabble. 1797 Southey Lett. fr. Spain (1808) II. 260 What regards heretics and dogmatists. |
3. One who belongs to the dogmatic school of philosophy: see dogmatic a. 3, and quot. 1858.
| 1603 Florio Montaigne ii. xii. (1632) 294 Some have judged Plato a Dogmatist, others a Skeptike or a Doubter. 1690 Dryden Don Sebast. Ded., Of the academic sect, neither dogmatist nor stoic. 1858 Mansel Bampton Lect. i. (ed. 4) 2 In the later language of philosophy..the term Dogmatists was used to denote those philosophers who endeavoured to explain the phenomena of experience by means of rational conceptions and demonstrations. |
b. A physician of the dogmatic school of medicine: see dogmatic a. 3.
| 1541 R. Copland Galyen's Terap. 2 B iij, Some Dogmatystes which do affyrme to heale such dyseases by experyence onely without racyonall indicion. 1607 T. Walkington Opt. Glass 44 The inexpert physician, I meane..the methodist or dogmatist. 1727 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Blood, The Dogmatists make a Plaister of it..the Chymists..extract a Salt from it. 1883 in Syd. Soc. Lex. |