controversialist
/ˌkɒn.tɹəˈvɜːɹ.ʃəl.ɪst/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.67 in modern English
21
Scrabble Score
16
Letters
5
Syllables
11
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
One who regularly engages in public controversies.
Example Sentences
- "Richard Dawkins has become a leading controversialist in a few areas."
- "His indefatigable adversary, who is the perfect model of an agile controversialist, had attacked him as a magniloquent Thraso, on account of his Pansophical promises."
- "Does this explain the sensational character of some of his public pronouncements? A controversialist might drive through some of the later chapters with a coach and four without encountering serious impediments; but sono ben trovati, and he is a hold man who would presume to pass final judgment upon the contemporary phase of Italy’s history."
- "He was not a drunkard, not a chronic bankrupt. For the rest, Mr. Woodward depicts [Thomas] Paine as a highminded controversialist, persecuted by reactionaries on both sides of the Atlantic for no more than liberal political views."
- "In the early 1700s [Jonathan] Swift spent much of his time in London, where he wormed his way into the company of coffee-house wits and politicians, and, beginning to publish political tracts, won a reputation as a controversialist."
- "This was to have been the final date of the rightwing controversialist’s charmingly named Dangerous Faggot Tour of US campuses."
Etymology
Etymology tree English controversial Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íd͏̌d͏̌ō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō) Proto-Hellenic *-tās Ancient Greek -τής (-tḗs) Ancient Greek -ῐστής (-ĭstḗs)bor. Latin -istader. Old French -istebor. Middle English -ist English -ist English controversialist From controversial + -ist.