[f. ESSAY sb. and v. + -IST.]
1. One who essays, one who makes trials or experiments. Const. of. Now rare.
1736. in Bailey.
1794. Burke, trans. Pref. Brissot’s Address, Wks. 1815, VII. 313. All the priests, all the loyalists, all the first essayists and novices of revolution in 1789, that could be found, were promiscuously put to death.
1815. W. H. Ireland, Scribbleomania, 80, note. The panegyric may prompt such unfortunate essayists to consult the productions of the personage so extolled.
1868. Mrs. H. Wood, Red Court Farm, I. ix. 256. The mistakes made by both essayists kept the platform in a roar.
2. A writer of essays.
1609. B. Jonson, Sil. Wom., II. iii. (1612), D 3. Graue Asses! Meere Essaists! a few loose Sentences, and that’s all.
a. 1774. Goldsm., Reverie (R.). I am not to have admittance as an essayist.
1791. Boswell, Johnson (1831), I. 211. A cessation … of any exertion of his talents as an essayist.
1829. Macaulay, Misc. Writ. (1860), I. 311. The conclusion at which the essayist arrives.
1884. J. W. Ebsworth, in Roxb. Bal., II. Pref. p. viii. He was a brilliant historical Essayist.
