legitimist
- noun
- /lɪˈdʒɪtɪmɪst/
- Archaic
- During the debate, the legitimist passionately defended the idea of legitimate royal succession.
Examples
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When the legitimist asks whether Corner Man really owns his corner, he is not asking whether Corner Man should own his corner.
Blog text (24) -
One synonym for reactionary is legitimist.
Blog text (24) -
To be a legitimist and demand the return of the Bourbons (as many reactionaries did) is to threaten the existing order and bring about violence.
Blog text (24) -
Simultaneously, Legitimists and clericals proposed that France's future glory lay in a return to the values of its past, with a homogeneous, largely Catholic body politic supporting a strong monarch.
Academic text (2003) -
The legitimist believes that the rightful heir should be on the throne and seeks to restore them to power.
-
As a legitimist, she supported the restoration of the monarchy in France to its rightful rulers.
Surface Forms
Morphology
legitimist = legitimate (transparent) = legitimate + ist
A straightforward agentive formation: 'legitimate' (supporting lawful claim) + '-ist' yields 'a supporter of legitimacy', which is directly inferable.
Etymology
Legitimist comes from the Latin root legitimus meaning 'lawful' and the ending -ist meaning 'person who supports'. So a legitimist is a person who supports the lawful or true heir to the throne.