[f. as prec. + -IST.] a. An upholder or imitator of classic style or form. b. One who advocates the school study of the Latin and Greek classics.
1839. Blackw. Mag., XLV. 460. The eternal and inevitable schism between the Romanticists and the Classicists.
1865. J. Hullah, Transit. Period Music, 10. Few experiments were needed to show to these vehement Classicists that they could not get on at all without ‘Gothic’ art.
1867. Seeley, in Macm. Mag., Nov., 79/1. They [classicists] say … that if you would cultivate the mind, you must imbue it with good literature.
