universalist

universal +‎ -ist

universalist (comparative more universalist, superlative most universalist)

1. Universal in scope.
   • 1988, Andrew Radford, chapter 8, in Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 404:

     In this connection, she notes (1984, p. 42) that in Vata (a language of the Kru family, spoken in the Ivory Coast) the normal word-order is _VP XP^✽ V, where XP^✽ represents one or more Complements of the head V of VP, and where V is positioned at the right periphery of V-bar. She notes that in Vata, a finite Clause containing an Auxiliary will have the AUX positioned in I between the subject NP and the VP, with the V positioned at the end of the VP, as in [...]
     But if I contains no Auxiliary (i.e. is empty), the Verb of the VP will move from V into I, and hence no longer be positioned at the end of VP, but rather in the characteristic I position between NP and VP: cf.
     [...]
     Here, the movement of the Verb out of VP-final position ([...]) into I produces an obvious change in the linear ordering of constituents, thus lending clear empirical support to the V MOVEMENT analysis. And Koopman goes on to suggest that given that we have clear empirical motivation for positing a rule of V MOVEMENT for languages such as Vata, universalist considerations argue in favor of adopting the V MOVEMENT analysis rather than the AFFIX MOVEMENT analysis for English, in default of any evidence to the contrary.

   • 2007 January 19, Grace Glueck, “Art in Review”, in New York Times‎:

     In tracing the relationships between Western Modernism and the arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas, the curators took a universalist approach.

2. (religion, US, paganism, Germanic paganism) Following a form of neopaganism, especially Germanic neopaganism, that is supportive of minorities and marginalized groups.

The usage of "universalist" by pagans to describe themselves is mostly in the United States, in opposition to the far-right and extreme beliefs of "folkish" pagans.

• particularist (in general)
• folkish, neo-völkisch (paganism, chiefly US)

universalist (plural universalists)

1. A proponent of universalism.

Borrowed from French universaliste.

universalist m or n (feminine singular universalistă, masculine plural universaliști, feminine and neuter plural universaliste)

1. universalist