Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A writer of prose.
- noun A prosaic or commonplace person; one destitute of poetic thought or feeling.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A writer of prose; an unpoetical writer.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A person who writes
prose - noun A
prosaic person
Etymologies
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Examples
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Of course Meredith can do it, and so could Shakespeare; but with all my romance, I am a realist and a prosaist, and a most fanatical lover of plain physical sensations plainly and expressly rendered; hence my perils.
Vailima Letters 2005
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Now and again some poet or prosaist may have said to another, "What has become of that man Soames?" but I never heard any such question asked.
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Now and again some poet or prosaist may have said to another, 'What has become of that man Soames?' but I never heard any such question asked.
Seven Men Max Beerbohm 1914
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Now and again some poet or prosaist may have said to another, "What has become of that man Soames?" but I never heard any such question asked.
Enoch Soames: a memory of the eighteen-nineties Max Beerbohm 1914
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We shall therefore rapidly survey its chief developments, noting first what had been done before Elizabeth came to the throne, then taking Ascham (who stands, though part of his work was written earlier, very much as the first Elizabethan prosaist), noticing the schools of historians, translators, controversialists, and especially critics who illustrated the middle period of the reign, and singling out the noteworthy personality of Sidney.
A History of Elizabethan Literature George Saintsbury 1889
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As a prosaist, Heine is, in one point of view, even more distinguished than as a poet.
The Essays of "George Eliot" Complete George Eliot 1849
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Bacon aside, the condensed force and poignant brevity of whose aphoristic wisdom has no parallel in English, there is no other prosaist who possesses anything like Milton's command over the resources of our language.
Milton Mark Pattison 1848
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He actually describes Addison, on the whole, as a 'dull prosaist,' and the patron of pedantry!
Note Book of an English Opium-Eater Thomas De Quincey 1822
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I hope you will not visit the very learned Herr Nicolai, the insipid prosaist, the puffed-up rationalist, who believes that his knowledge permits him to penetrate every thing, and who is a veritable ass. "
Old Fritz and the New Era Peter [Translator] Langley 1843
qroqqa commented on the word prosaist
To the painters he was respectful, even humble; but for the poets and prosaists of 'The Yellow Book,' and later of 'The Savoy,' he had never a word but of scorn.
—Max Beerbohm, 'Enoch Soames'
August 3, 2009
qms commented on the word prosaist
Forsooth, fulsome praise, as thou sayest,
Could go to a clever essayist;
But prithee bestow it
On some soaring poet
And not a mere plodding prosaist.
July 12, 2016