Also 6 atheyst, 6–7 athist(e. [a. F. athéiste (16th c. in Littré), or It. atheista: see prec. and -IST.]
1. One who denies or disbelieves the existence of a God.
[a. 1568. Coverdale, Hope of Faithf., Pref. Wks. II. 139. Eat we and drink we lustily; to-morrow we shall die: which all the epicures protest openly, and the Italian atheoi.]
1571. Golding, Calvin on Ps., Ep. Ded. 3. The Atheistes which say … there is no God.
1604. Rowlands, Looke to It, 23. Thou damned Athist … That doest deny his power which did create thee.
1709. Shaftesb., Charac., I. I. § 2 (1737), II. 11. To believe nothing of a designing Principle or Mind, nor any Cause, Measure, or Rule of Things, but Chance … is to be a perfect Atheist.
1876. Gladstone, in Contemp. Rev., June, 22. By the Atheist I understand the man who not only holds off, like the sceptic, from the affirmative, but who drives himself, or is driven, to the negative assertion in regard to the whole Unseen, or to the existence of God.
2. One who practically denies the existence of a God by disregard of moral obligation to Him; a godless man.
1577. Hanmer, Anc. Eccl. Hist., 63. The opinion which they conceaue of you, to be Atheists, or godlesse men.
1660. Stanley, Hist. Philos., 323/2. An Atheist is taken two ways, for him who is an enemy to the Gods, and for him who believeth there are no Gods.
1667. Milton, P. L., I. 495. When the Priest Turns Atheist, as did Ely’s Sons.
1827. Hare, Guesses, Ser. I. (1873), 27. Practically every man is an atheist, who lives without God in the world.
b. attrib. as adj. Atheistic, impious.
1667. Milton, P. L., VI. 370. The Atheist crew.
1821. Lockhart, Valerino, II. xi. 316. Borne from its wounded breast an atheist cry Hath pierced the upper and the nether sky.
