Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A person who employs the comparative method, as in studying literature.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a person who carries out a comparative study, especially of language and literary works

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French comparatiste, from comparative, comparative, from comparer, to compare; see compare.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From comparative +‎ -ist.

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Examples

  • No Shelleyan syncretist, Heber was nonetheless a learned comparatist (as his "Brightest and Best" Magi hymn suggests), interested in a Manichean Zoroastrianism that would divide good from evil.

    Hemans, Heber, and _Superstition and Revelation_ 1998

  • The Italian comparatist, Arturo Graf, traced such legendary themes as the earthly paradise and the devil; but this direction ran counter to the principles of Croce, whose opposition to comparative methods was grounded in his ideals of organic expres - sion.

    MOTIF HARRY LEVIN 1968

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