[f. as TACTIC sb.1 + -IAN. So mod.F. tacticien (1812 in Hatz.-Darm.).] One versed or skilled in the science or art of tactics.
1798. Ld. Auckland, Corr. (1862), III. 386. An armed nation, composed, perhaps, of ignorant tacticians, but steady and brave.
1838. Sparks’ Biog., IX. Steuben, 23. Trained under so expert a tactician as the great Frederic.
1877. Green, Hist. Eng. People, I. 426. Edward … had shewn himself as consummate a strategist in the campaign as a tactician in the field.
transf. 1842. Miall, in Nonconf., II. 505. The lubricity of the clever tactician.
1880. ‘Ouida,’ Moths, I. 143. She was a clever tactician.
Hence Tacticianize v. nonce-wd., to play the tactician; Tactitionary a., Tactitionist (bad formations, confusing -ician with -ition).
1868. Guardian, 12 Aug., 905. He does not tacticianize morning, noon, and night.
1881. Philad. (U.S.) Record, No. 3467. 2. Mr. Wheeler has never been a tactitionist in his party.
1890. Sir J. Ferguson, in Standard, 1 May, 2/2. But that [legislation] was altogether artificial and tactitionary.
1890. Sat. Rev., 3 May, 519/2. The possibly useful, but not blessed, word ‘tactitionary.’
