Also cabalist. [ad. med.L. cabbalista: see -IST. Cf. also F. cabaliste.]
1. One who professes acquaintance with and faith in the Jewish Cabbala.
c. 1533. Dewes, Introd. Fr., in Palsgr., 1058. Of the whiche knowlege the cabalystes doth make fyftie gates.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep. (1650), 212. The doctrine of the Cabalists, who in each of the four banners inscribe a letter of the Tetragrammaton.
1794. R. J. Sulivan, View Nat., II. 236. The Masorites and Cabbalists.
1878. O. B. Frothingham, in N. Amer. Rev., 468. The cabalists and Talmudists are responsible for him [Adam].
2. One skilled in mystic arts or learning.
a. 1592. Greene, Dram. Wks. (1831), I. 182. The cabalists that write of magic spells.
1704. Swift, T. Tub, V. (1709), 76. As eminent a Cabalist as his Disciples would represent him.
1847. Emerson, Poems, Initial Love. Cupid is a casuist, A mystic, and a cabalist.
1850. Maurice, Mor. & Met. Philos., I. 157. Plato felt the temptation to be a cabbalist.
3. See CABALIST.