constructionist
nounEtymology From construction + -ist.
1
An advocate of constructionism.
- Aristotle claimed that people were by nature political animals, thus inaugurating the essentialist argument for the state. The constructionists similarly believe that the modern state is an overriding necessity, a built-in impulse that cannot be resisted any more than the St. Laurence River making its way to the sea.1988 April 9, Charley Shively, “Canada, Oh Canada!”, in Gay Community News, page 8:
2
One who puts a certain construction upon some writing or instrument, such as the United States Constitution.
- a strict constructionist; a broad constructionist
3
Obsolete One who works in construction.
- The gap that remains in the interior will no doubt be eventually bridged over by railway communication; and thus the great continent will no longer be a terra incognita to the general world, who have hitherto only heard of the splendid country through which the railway will pass, from the reports of telegraph constructionists and overlanding parties.1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 242:
- Derived terms
- loose constructionist, social constructionist, strict constructionist