preservationist

[ prez-er-vey-shuh-nist ]

noun

1. a person who advocates or promotes preservation, especially of wildlife, natural areas, or historical places:

   A group of historic preservationists is working to keep the old meeting house intact by turning it into a haven for scholars, researchers, and academics.

Other Words From

• preser·vation·ism noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of preservationist¹

1925–30; preservation ( def ) + -ist

Example Sentences

Boats that go down in the Great Lakes benefit from the temperatures at certain depths, according to Kevin Ailes, shipwreck preservationist and diver.

From Popular-Science

I’ve already been given the opportunity to inspire people to get into archiving and understand that becoming a cultural preservationist is a valuable thing.

From Washington Post

In 2015, the lot went up for sale for potential use as a single-use family home, and the mural was whitewashed over, to the dismay of preservationists.

From Time

Bronze, an alloy of copper, tin and occasionally lead, and trace metals like aluminum and arsenic, is particularly exciting to preservationists because of its chemistry.

From Popular-Science

Preservationists, who worry about plans to evolve the 1981 brutalist design into “a 21st century sculpture garden,” are sending regular email blasts.

From Washington Post

Related Words

• biologist
• botanist
• conservationist
• ecologist
• environmentalist
• zoologist