economist
(ɪˈkɒnəmɪst, ɛ-)
[f. Gr. οἰκονόµος (see economy) + -ist. Cf. Fr. économiste.]
† 1. One who manages a household; a housekeeper. Obs. or arch.
| 1586 T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. i. (1594) 100 A prudent man..may first become a good oeconomist, that is, a governor & father of a familie. c 1645 Howell Lett. (1650) I. 99 Mr. Penry..will prove a good husband, and a great œconomist. 1765 Wilkes Corr. (1805) II. 219, I am got into lodgings of my own, and will endeavour to be as good an œconomist as my villainous nature will let me. 1857 Ruskin Pol. Econ. Art 11 The perfect economist or mistress of a household. |
2. A manager in general; one who attends to the sparing and effective use of anything, esp. of money. Const. of.
| 1710 Shaftesbury Charac. iii. §1. (1737) II. 372 O wise Oeconomist.. whom all the Elements and Powers of Nature serve! 1711 Steele Spect. No. 64 ¶2 He is a good Oeconomist in his extravagance. 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict. II. s.v. Lime, Every good Oeconomist will purchase as..cheap as he can. 1824 J. Johnson Typogr. I. 553 He appears to have been but an indifferent œconomist. 1841 D'Israeli Amen. Lit. (1867) 47 [He] was such a rigid economist of time, that every hour was allotted to its separate work. |
3. One who practises or advocates saving.
| 1758 Herald ii. 199 No. 27 He is an œconomist in his expences. 1771 H. Mackenzie Man Feel. xxxvi. (1803) 72 His aunt was an economist. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. II. 420 An Italian..must be a rigid economist. 1868 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) II. vii. 115 Economists who pressed for the reduction of the public expenditure. |
4. a. A student of, or writer upon, economics or political economy.
| 1804 Earl of Lauderdale Publ. Wealth (1819) 354 To the economists commerce ought to have appeared a direct means of increasing wealth. 1827 Whateley Logic (1836) 393 The great defect of..our own economists in general, is the want of definitions. 1866 Rogers Agric. & Prices I. Pref., Those facts which form the special study of the economist. |
b. More fully, political economist.
| 1825 Miss Mitford in L'Estrange Life II. x. 197 He [Mr. Monck] is a great Grecian and a great political economist. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. 326 David Hume..one of the most profound political economists of his time. |
c. One of the school of ‘Economistes’ (who flourished) in France in the 18th c.
| 1776 Adam Smith W.N. iv. ix, A..considerable sect, distinguished in the French republic of letters by the name of ‘The Economists’. 1869 Buckle Civilis. II. vii. 328 Soon after 1755 the economists effected a schism between the nation and the government. 1878 Morley Condorcet 33 As a thinker he is roughly classed as an Economist. |
d. One who practises or advocates economism.
| 1949 I. Deutscher Stalin ii. 31 The ‘Economists’ wanted to confine their activities to supporting workers' claims for higher wages and better conditions of work, without bothering about politics. 1955 H. Hodgkinson Doubletalk 46 An Economist is one who accepts a Marxist analysis of society and believes in the inevitable rise of socialism, but maintains that ‘the unaided evolution of inevitable economic changes can bring about the desired revolution without theoretical guidance’. |