Also 7 -est. [f. QUESTION v. + -IST.]
1. A habitual or professed questioner, spec. in theological matters. (In early use applied to certain of the schoolmen, as Aquinas and Duns Scotus.)
1523. [Coverdale], Old God & New (1534), R ij. Opiniators & questionistes braulynge and striuyng among them selues.
1528. Roy, Rede me (Arb.), 43. They sent thether Thomas and Scote With wother questionistes.
a. 1568. Ascham, Scholem. (Arb.), 137. The worst of all, as Questionistes, and all the barbarous nation of scholemen.
1660. Ingelo, Bentiv. & Ur., I. (1682), 142. They let alone the trifling niceties of Questionists.
1762. Gentl. Mag., 84. Your respectable rendezvous of curious questionists.
1812. Coleridge, Lett., to his Wife (1895), 581. He is a fearful questionist, whenever he thinks he can pick up any information.
1874. Sylvester, in Proc. Roy. Instit., VII. 184, note. A questionist in the ‘Educational Times.’
2. Formerly, at Cambridge and Harvard: An undergraduate in his last term before proceeding to the degree of B.A.
1574. M. Stokys, in Peacock, Stat. Cambridge (1841), App. A. p. iv. The Questionists shall gyue the Bedels warnynge … that they may proclayme … thentrynge of their Questions.
1650. [see INCEPTOR 1].
1661. K. W., Conf. Charac. (1860), 95. A Petition of Questionests to Mr. Frost for their degrees.
1772. Jebb, Remarks, 20. The Examination of the Questionists; this being the appellation of the Students during the last six weeks of their preparation.
1887. Cambridge Univ. Cal., 64. If any Questionist have been prevented by illness from keeping all his terms, a Certificate must be delivered.
