[f. L. anima soul + -IST.]
a. One holding the animism of Stahl. b. One who attributes a living soul to natural objects and phenomena. c. (Extended polemically to) One who believes in the existence of the soul as distinct from the body, and in a spiritual world generally.
1819. W. Lawrence, Nat. Hist. Man, iii. 77. A tribe of animists … maintained that the soul is the only cause of life.
1864. R. Burton, Dahome, II. 157. Those rewards and punishments by which, according to the Semitic animist, the balance of good and evil in this life is to be struck.
1866. Fortn. Rev., 15 Aug., 84. The Animist may or may not be an idolater.
