[f. ANTIQUIT-Y + -ARIAN; cf. humanitarian.] One attached to the practices or opinions of antiquity.
1641. Milton, Reform., 4. I shall distinguish … the hinderers of Reformation into 3 sorts, 1. Antiquitarians (for so I had rather call them then Antiquaries, whose labours are usefull and laudable).
1756. W. Maitland, History and Survey of London, II. 1048/1. An exquisite British Antiquitarian asserts, that the Britains erected Stones for religious Worship.
1849. Sara Coleridge, Mem. & Lett., II. 260. The Antiquitarian must shew the reasonableness of his creed, if he seeks to defend it.
