Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun linguistics, rare One who defines a language by usage rather than theory.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

usage +‎ -ist

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Examples

  • In Comfortable Words, Bergen Evans described the subtle difference in a blaze of usagist brilliance: “Confronted with a choice between choose and opt, my impulse is to opt for choose.”

    No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003

  • In Comfortable Words, Bergen Evans described the subtle difference in a blaze of usagist brilliance: “Confronted with a choice between choose and opt, my impulse is to opt for choose.”

    No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003

  • In Comfortable Words, Bergen Evans described the subtle difference in a blaze of usagist brilliance: “Confronted with a choice between choose and opt, my impulse is to opt for choose.”

    No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003

  • I checked with the usagist Jacques Barzun, who is a friend.

    No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003

  • I checked with the usagist Jacques Barzun, who is a friend.

    No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003

  • I checked with the usagist Jacques Barzun, who is a friend.

    No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003

  • I checked with the usagist Jacques Barzun, who is a friend.

    No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003

  • In Comfortable Words, Bergen Evans described the subtle difference in a blaze of usagist brilliance: “Confronted with a choice between choose and opt, my impulse is to opt for choose.”

    No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003

  • Richard Grant White, the popular American usagist, declares donate "abominable" and inaugurate "nonsense."

    Boston Globe -- Ideas section Jan Freeman 2010

  • This despite the usagist Ted Bernstein’s condemnation of it as “a casualism that has no place in serious writing” at bastions of good grammar like The New York Times.

    No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003

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