Civilist

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈsɪvɪlɪst/

Definitions

1. A person who champions the importance of civic duty and social equity
2. A person who promotes the values of civic responsibility, social justice, and active community participation
3. Someone who supports the principles of civil rights and encourages citizens to fulfill their societal roles

Etymology: The word "civilist" is a learned formation built on the pattern of a much older one. In Medieval Latin, "civilista" was a name for a scholar of civil law, the Roman-derived legal system, and it was modelled on "canonista," the term for a specialist in canon law, the church's body of rules. Both words follow the same logic: a field of law (civil or canon) plus a suffix marking a practitioner of it. The Latin root "cīvīlis" means "of citizens" or "civil," tied to "cīvis," a citizen, so the core idea of the word has always concerned the citizen and the community. In English the term is recorded as a historical word, listed in the Oxford English Dictionary as "†civilist," with the dagger marking it as obsolete. Its meaning in English was tied to the study and practice of civil law rather than to the modern sense of someone championing civil rights, which is a later and quite different application of the same root.

Synonyms: citizen, inhabitant, resident, civilian, person

Antonyms: military, warrior, combatant, soldier, fighter