Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “idealist” come from?

Idealist comes from French idéaliste, formed with the French suffix -iste from Latin -ista, attached to Latin idea, which derives from Proto-Indo-European weyd- meaning to see.

idealist (English): One who adheres to idealism; Someone whose...

Definitions

  1. One who adheres to idealism; Someone whose...

Ancestry of “idealist”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1English-icUsed to form adjectives from nouns with the...
2EnglishimageAn optical or other representation of a real...
3Frenchimagepicture, image; frame; first-person singular...
4Portugueseimagemimage; picture; figure; image; image; face
5Spanishimagenimage
6Italianimmagineimage; imago
7Latinimāginem—
8Latinim-Alternative form of in-; form of "in"; in
9Latinīn-—
10Latinîn—
11Latinenlookǃ beholdǃ; reallyǃ?; come onǃ
12Proto-Italicenin
13Proto-Indo-Europeanh₁énin

Words derived from “idealist”

  • idealistic
  • idealistically
  • unidealistic
  • nonidealist
  • overidealistic
  • neoidealist
Every word from Proto-Indo-European h₁én →