sb. and a. [f. the name of the English poet William Wordsworth (1770–1850) + -IAN.] a. sb. An admirer or imitator of Wordsworth, or a student of his works. b. adj. Of, belonging to, or characteristic of Wordsworth; (of a poem) composed by, or in the style of, Wordsworth.
1810. R. H. Rose, Sketches in Verse, 72. I hope the nimium ne crede colori of my moral, in the last stanza, (which I venture to assert, is perfectly Wordsworthian,) will not be overlooked.
1815. Sporting Mag., XLVI. 12/2. I am enough of a Wordsworthian not to confine my tastes to the received elegancies of society.
1825. Lockhart, in Scott’s Fam. Lett. (1894), II. 342. Miss Hume is an ecstatic Wordsworthian, and is to go to see him one of these days in the flesh.
1856. Ruskin, Mod. Painters, III. IV. xvii. § 29. 304. ‘J’aime mieux ma mie,’ is … the first Wordsworthian poem brought forward on philosophical principles, to oppose the schools of art and affectation.
1874. Blackie, Self-Cult., 44. Given to indulge in Wordsworthian musings.
1878. R. H. Hutton, Scott, xvi. (1888), 162. Even Scott, who was so little of a Wordsworthian,… must have recurred that day … to that favourite Wordsworthian poem.
1921. Spectator, 2 July, 7/2. Imagine a poet whose mind was perfectly balanced between the desirability of gorgeous Swinburnesque ornament and Wordsworthian austerity.
Hence Wordsworthianism.
1829. Blackw. Mag., XXVI. 608/1. The very essence of Wordsworthianism is the belief that its king can do no wrong.
1881. Sat. Rev., 12 Feb., 215/1. There has been of late a recrudescence of Wordsworthianism.
