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Voltairean

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Voltaire +‎ -an.

Adjective

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Voltairean (comparative more Voltairean, superlative most Voltairean)

  1. (philosophy) Of or pertaining to François-Marie Arouet (1694-1778; pen name "Voltaire"), French writer, essayist, and philosopher known for his wit and defence of civil liberties.
    • 1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 448:
      "What do you want? Nineteenth-century rationalism, Voltairian deism? We're living in a religious age, you know. I suppose Anglicanism might be a solution."
    • 1988, Edmund White, chapter 1, in The Beautiful Room is Empty, New York: Vintage International, published 1994:
      [] the skinny boy at the next table smirked with a thin Voltairian sneer.

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Noun

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Voltairean (plural Voltaireans)

  1. (philosophy) A person who subscribes to the philosophy of Voltaire.
    • 1855, Richard Francis Burton, chapter II, in A Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah[1], volume I, London: Tylston & Edwards, published 1893, page 21:
      Then hearing that I was a Darwaysh and doctor—he must be an Osmanli Voltairean, that little Turk—the official snorted a contemptuous snort.
    • 1922, G. K. Chesterton, chapter 3, in The Man Who Knew Too Much[2]:
      [] But as for saints and relics and things, I fear I'm a bit of a Voltairian; what you would call a skeptic.”

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