[f. as prec. + -IST.]
1. One who devotes himself to experimental research in some branch of science; one who is skilled in performing experiments.
1762. W. Jones (of Nayland), Ess. Nat. Phil., I. iii. 26. There is hardly a motion in nature, which this fluid, when applied by a diligent experimentalist, is not capable of producing.
1787. W. Marshall, Norfolk, I. 366. Praise is due to every experimentalist in agriculture.
1794. G. Adams, Nat. & Exp. Philos., I. v. 175. The qualities that distinguish an observer of nature from a mere experimentalist.
1812. Sir H. Davy, Chem. Philos., 20. This person … was the last active experimentalist who believed that transmutation has actually been performed.
1881. Lubbock, in Nature, No. 618. 411. Faraday, the prince of pure experimentalists.
2. One who is fond of trying experiments, or who advocates new schemes.
1828. Whately, Rhet., I. iii. § 2. Being regarded as a dangerous experimentalist.
1857. Toulmin Smith, Parish, 363. Making ‘districts’ … seems … the favourite scheme of the experimentalists.
3. nonce-use. One who has an experimental sense of religion.
1806. A. Knox, Serm., I. 34. The … disagreement between the merely moral Christian and the experimentalist.
