a. [f. the surname Smith (see defs.).]
1. Devised or suggested by William Smith (1769–1839), the founder of stratigraphical geology.
1819. Phil. Mag., LIV. 133. A stratigraphical or Smithian arrangement of the fossil shells.
2. Of or pertaining to, accepting or holding the principles of, Adam Smith.
The sbs. Smithianism, Smithism, have also been recently employed.
1885. Encycl. Brit., XIX. 365/2. The successive rise and reign of three doctrines—the mercantile, the physiocratic, and the Smithian.
1892. W. S. Lilly, Shibboleths, 198. The whole Smithian school of political economists affects a superiority to facts.
