ANIMALIST°

noun (Politics) An animal rights campaigner or supporter. Etymology: A contraction of animal liberationist; formerly, an animalist was a follower of the philosophy of animalism or an artist who treated animal subjects. History and Usage: This snappier term arose in US English during the mid eighties and is as yet barely established in the language. The movement to which it refers, variously known as animal liberation, animal lib, and animal rights, has a much longer history--the term animal liberation goes back to the early seventies--and there is a good case for a term which would be less of a mouthful than animal liberationist or animal rights campaigner, although this one suffers from possible confusion with the opposite meaning of the adjective animalist in the entry below. The uproar resulted from a column two weeks ago in which I reported that animalist Barbara Toth was enraged over the possibility that some Asian immigrants in Canoga Park might be turning strays into dog foo young. Los Angeles Times (Valley edition) 22 July 1985, section 2, p. 7 The dismal sight on Tuesday night of bedraggled 'animalists' distributing protest literature to queues of happy families agog with the expectancy of pure pleasure. Financial Times 28 July 1988, p. 21