a. and sb. [f. L. antīquāri-us (see ANTIQUARY) + -AN.]

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  A.  adj.

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  1.  Of or connected with the study of antiquities.

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1771.  Ducarel, in Phil. Trans., LXI. 150. I might have dwelt more largely upon the antiquarian part of my subject.

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1769.  Warburton, Lett. late Prelate (1808), No. 213. 431 (T.). You say your antiquarian taste drew you thither.

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1872.  Yeats, Tech. Hist. Comm., 346. The antiquarian treasures of the British Museum.

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1867.  Freeman, Norm. Conq., I. vi. 517. The axe, as antiquarian researches show, was in use almost everywhere.

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  2.  Applied to a large size of drawing-paper.

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1875.  Ure, Dict. Arts, III. 497. Antiquarian [size of paper], 53 by 31.

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1879.  Spon, Workshop Rects., 1. Antiquarian [paper], 52 × 29 inches..

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  B.  sb. [The adj. used absol.] One who studies or is fond of antiquities; an antiquary.

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1610.  Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1627), 6. I referre the matter … to the Senate of Antiquarians, for to be decided.

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1778.  Johnson, in Boswell, III. 61. A mere Antiquarian is a rugged being.

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1856.  Max Müller, Chips (1880), II. xvi. 7. History … appeals not only to the antiquarian, but to the heart of every man.

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1872.  Hardwick, Trad. Lanc., 220. A thorough-going antiquarian would call this a Druidical remain.

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