Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun One who adheres to the letter or exact word; an interpreter according to the letter.
- noun In art, an exact copyist; one who draws or paints with unimaginative exactness.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun One who adheres to the letter or exact word; an interpreter according to the letter.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A person who adheres to the
literal representation of a statement or law. - noun A person who
translates textliterally .
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Some literalist is probably at this moment self-inflicting a herniated disc with head-shaking and complaining that anabolic steroids weren't synthesized until around the 1930s.
Archive 2007-11-01 Matthew Guerrieri 2007
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Some literalist is probably at this moment self-inflicting a herniated disc with head-shaking and complaining that anabolic steroids weren't synthesized until around the 1930s.
9 Symphonies* Matthew Guerrieri 2007
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The initial panels are setup to the joke that the so-called literalist in the strip isn't actually taking EVERYTHING literally, just the elements that he wants to take literally.
Almost a Literalist James F. McGrath 2009
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I did hear enough to learn that Enyart is a young earth creationist and Biblical literalist, which is enough to indicate that he's pretty damned ignorant.
Pharyngula 2010
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I find this to be a kind of literalist approach to Wyeth's painting, as if the subject of a poem were the words.
Archive 2009-01-01 Linda 2009
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I find this to be a kind of literalist approach to Wyeth's painting, as if the subject of a poem were the words.
On the Passing of Andrew Wyeth Linda 2009
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The word 'literalist' has no more meaning than that of the context in which it has been used - ie that the historicists position is a position that is taking a literal approach to the gospel Jesus - in contrast to the mythicist position which is taking a non-literal approach.
Accusations and Assumptions: Another Mythicist-Creationist Parallel James F. McGrath 2010
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The "literalist" argument had legs, but its feet are full of self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
Roadkill 2010
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As for slavery, I am not sure that a 'literalist' reading of the Bible does lead to affirmation of slavery.
Blair on 'doing God' Burke's Corner 2009
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When he turns to the creation stories and their relationship to the controversies over evolution, his insights are articulated in a striking and helpful way: "Making a protoscientific treatise of this song, thus depriving it of its grand resonance, suggests that a "literalist" reading of the Bible is not reading the Bible at all" p.192.
Archive 2008-12-01 James F. McGrath 2008
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