[f. COLONIZE: see -IST.]
1. a. One who colonizes or settles in a new country; one who takes part in founding a colony; a member of a colonizing expedition. b. An inhabitant of a colony.
1701. J. Logan, in Pa. Hist. Soc. Mem., IX. 68. If good colonists were brought into them.
1774. Burke, Amer. Tax., Wks. 1852, III. 179. When … you revived the scheme of taxation, and thereby filled the minds of the colonists with new jealousy.
1816. Southey, Poet’s Pilgr., IV. 41. To convey The adventurous colonist beyond the seas.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng. (1858), II. viii. 243–4. The Roman military colonists remained Roman alike on the Rhine and on the Euphrates.
1876. Green, Short Hist., viii. 490. Among the English colonists of North America.
2. transf. An animal or plant that has quite established itself in a place where it is not indigenous.
1878. Hooker, Stud. Flora, Pref. 7. To the doubtfully indigenous species I have added Watson’s opinion as to whether they are ‘colonists’ or ‘denizens.’ Ibid., xlii. 213. Chrysanthemum segetum … cultivated fields; a colonist. Watson.
