Asianistn.adj.
/ˈeɪʒn̩ɪst/, /ˈeɪʃn̩ɪst/, U.S. /ˈeɪʒənəst/ A. n.
1. Classical History. An orator who employs an elaborate, rhythmic, and emotive style held to be characteristic of the Greeks of Asia Minor of the third to first centuries b.c.; (also) an author whose style is reminiscent of this. Cf. Asianic adj. 1, Asianism n. 2.
ΚΠ
1891 W. Peterson in tr. Quintilian Institutionis Oratoriae: Liber Decimus ii. Notes 71 His critics..pointed to his elaborately periodic structure and rhythmical amplitude as proving that he was really an Asianist in disguise.
1910 Amer. Jrnl. Philol. 31 313 The prose rhythm which the Asianists introduced found many imitators.
1949 S. F. Bonner Rom. Declar. vii. 137 Livy must have meant that such stylists..did make some attempt at restraint and conscious artistry, as opposed to the complete Asianists.
2017 Jrnl. Rom. Stud. 107 234 Craton, a witty Asianist who rebukes Augustus for only hearing him speak in the cold weather: ‘You are using me as a furnace.’
2. A student of or expert on (a part of) Asia and its affairs.See also South Asianist n., South-east Asianist n.
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1920 Jrnl. Royal Asiatic Soc. Oct. 654 He is not so much..a mere Sinologist as an Asianist, for his researches range from the extreme North-East, China,..and now going west..within the cultural and linguistic limits of Iran.
1974 Mongolian Stud. 1 95 This book will continue to be of considerable interest to the Inner Asianist and Mongolist alike.
1991 Independent (Nexis) 20 Sept. 18 [On hearing of] the death of John Fairbank, the 84-year-old Harvard historian of modern China, Asianists on every continent knew that an era had ended.
2015 F. Bray in F. Bray et al. Rice 1 As an Asianist I was astonished by the strangeness, the striking unfamiliarity of the questions and assumptions of historians discussing rice in Africa and the Americas.
3. A person who advocates the political unification of Asia or solidarity among Asian nations, esp. against the perceived threat of Western political and cultural domination. Cf. Asianism n. 3, pan-Asianist n.
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1970 Ann. Rev. (Japan Inst. Internat. Affairs) 5 60 As one famous Asianist explained the purpose of going into China: ‘We go into China and take it. We establish good government and revive Asia.’
1974 Times 22 June 8/5 Generally the Asianists tended to be moralistic and romantic.
2007 S. Esenbel in B. Tankha O. Tenshin & Pan-Asianism (2009) iv. 55 Ibrahim and Barakatullah's activities show us that there were Japanese Asianists interested in spreading the message of Japan in Muslim Asia.
B. adj.
1. Classical History. Of oratorical or literary style: elaborate, rhythmic, and emotive, in a manner held to be characteristic of the Greeks of Asia Minor of the third to first centuries b.c. Hence: (of an orator or author) having such a style.
ΚΠ
1941 Classical Weekly 24 Mar. 207/1 The last selection in Monsignor D'Alton's book is a typical piece of Asianist oratory, with all its faults, in praise of the reading of scripture.
1978 Classical Rev. 28 263 In what sense, then, was Hortensius Asianist?
2014 Acta Classica 57 80 Writers from the Eastern Roman Empire favoured the more florid style of prose referred to as Asianist.
2. Of or relating to any of various doctrines and movements advocating the political unification of Asia or solidarity among Asian nations, esp. against the perceived threat of Western political and cultural domination; that advocates or supports Asianism (Asianism n. 3). Cf. pan-Asianist adj.
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1954 Eastern World Nov. 8/1 Even such fervent ‘Asianist’ countries as Burma and Indonesia have been showing qualms about China's future attitude to South-East Asia.
1974 Times 22 June 8/5 Mr Kuroda points out that the Asianist camp and the pro-Western camp have dominated political thought.
2015 R. Hoppens China Probl. in Postwar Japan (2016) ii. 48 Before 1945 Takeuchi had made a name for himself as an Asianist intellectual.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2021; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.adj.1891