First attested in 1788. abolition +‎ -ist.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌæ.bəˈlɪʃ.n̩.ɪst/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌæ.bəˈlɪʃ.n̩.ɪst/, /ˌæ.bəˈlɪʃ.n̩.əst/

abolitionist (comparative more abolitionist, superlative most abolitionist)

1. In favor of the abolition of any particular institution or practice.
   1. (chiefly historical) In favor of the abolition of slavery. [since the late 18^th century]^[1]
      • 2018 December 1, Drachinifel, 3:58 from the start, in Anti-Slavery Patrols - The West Africa Squadron‎^[1], archived from the original on 29 November 2024:

        This case, and others, drove and enlarged the existing abolitionist movement in the country, opposed, of course, by the merchants and plantation owners who were making a massive profit from the slaves held in various colonies.

abolitionist (plural abolitionists)

1. A person favoring or advocating for the abolition of any particular institution or practice. [since the late 18^th century]^[1]
   • 2005, Julia O'Connell Davidson, Children in the Global Sex Trade, Polity, →ISBN, page 107:

     Both feminist and religiously inspired abolitionists have long viewed, and continue to view, male demand for commercial sex as a root cause of prostitution.

   • 2007, J. Robert Lilly, Francis T. Cullen, Richard A. Ball, Criminological Theory: Context and Consequences, SAGE, →ISBN, page 198:

     Furthermore, abolitionists argue that prisons are a form of violence and should be destroyed because they reflect “a social ethos of violence and degradation" [...] Abolitionists argue that prisons should be replaced, or at least decentralized, by democratic community control and community-based treatment that would emphasize "redress" or "restorative justice."

   1. (chiefly historical, especially US) A person favoring or advocating for the abolition of slavery. [since the late 18^th century]^[1]
      • 1855, Frederick Douglass, chapter 3, in My Bondage and My Freedom. […], New York, Auburn, N.Y.: Miller, Orton & Mulligan […], →OCLC:

        Among other slave notabilities of the plantation, was one called by everybody Uncle Isaac Copper. It is seldom that a slave gets a surname from anybody in Maryland; and so completely has the south shaped the manners of the north, in this respect, that even abolitionists make very little of the surname of a negro.

• woolly-head (historical), nigger lover (highly offensive)

• Norwegian Bokmål: abolisjonist
• Polish: abolicjonista

• “abolitionist”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.