legitimist

American  

[li-jit-uh-mist] / lɪˈdʒɪt ə mɪst /

noun

1. a supporter of legitimate authority, especially of a claim to a throne based on direct descent.

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adjective

1. Also legitimistic of, relating to, or supporting legitimate authority.

legitimist British  

/ lɪˈdʒɪtɪmɪst /

noun

1. a monarchist who supports the rule of a legitimate dynasty or of its senior branch

2. (formerly) a supporter of the elder line of the Bourbon family in France

3. a supporter of legitimate authority

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adjective

1. of or relating to legitimists

Other Word Forms

• legitimism
  noun

Etymology

Origin of legitimist

1835–45; < Latin lēgitim ( us ) lawful ( see legitim) + -ist, modeled on French légitimiste

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

legitimist

Joseph de Maistre was "a fierce absolutist, a furious theocrat, an intransigent legitimist ... always and everywhere the champion of the hardest, narrowest and most inflexible dogmatism."

From Salon ● Jul. 1, 2023

He is thus a legitimist with a difference.

From A Short History of French Literature by George Saintsbury

The last letters he received informed him that the legitimist movement had become more serious, the Duchess de Berry preparing to leave Massa.

From International Miscellany of Literature, Art and Science, Vol. 1, No. 3, Oct. 1, 1850 by Various

Finding himself alone in Paris, where his only resource was the admiration of a few elderly "legitimist" ladies of the aristocratic Faubourg Saint Germain, he left for Vienna.

From The Enemies of Women (Los enemigos de la mujer) by Vicente Blasco Ib??ez

But the fact also was that Sophia was a Stuart by the mother's side, and did not wish too loudly to proclaim that she was not a legitimist.

From Lectures on Modern history by John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, Baron Acton