a. and sb. [f. AUTHORITY + -ARIAN; cf. trinitarian.]
A. adj. Favorable to the principle of authority as opposed to that of individual freedom.
1879. Daily News, 28 June, 2/6. Men who are authoritarian by nature, and cannot imagine that a country should be orderly save under a military despotism.
1882. Contemp. Rev., Sept., 459. Communists of the ‘Authoritarian’ type.
B. sb. One who supports the principle of authority.
1883. Times, 2 Jan., 3/1. He [Gambetta] was accused of being an authoritarian.
1884. Seeley, in Encycl. Brit., XVII. 226/1. A lover of liberty, not an authoritarian.
