abolitionist

English

First attested in 1788. abolition +‎ -ist.

abolitionist (comparative more abolitionist, superlative most abolitionist)

(historical) In favor of the abolition of slavery. [since the late 18^th century][1]

abolitionist (plural abolitionists)

A person who favors the abolition of any particular institution. [since the late 18^th century][1]
(historical, US) A person who favored or advocated the abolition of slavery. [since the late 18^th century][1]
- 1855, Frederick Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom Chapter 3
  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.

person who favors the abolition

“abolitionist” in Lesley Brown, editor, The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 5th edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 6.

abolitionist in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

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