anti-, prefix meanings, etymology and more | Oxford English Dictionary
Skip to main content
Oxford English Dictionary
Advanced search
More informations
Revised 2022 More entries for "anti-"

anti-prefix

Quotations

Earlier version

  1. 1.
    Prefixed adjectivally to nouns (including proper nouns).
    1. 1.a.
      1. 1.a.i.
        Forming nouns denoting persons who or (occasionally) things which are set up or proclaimed as rivals or opponents to that which is denoted by the first element; also with the sense ‘pretended’, ‘spurious’, ‘pseudo-’ (cf. pseudo- comb. form 1).
        Important models for formations of this type are Antichrist n. and antipope n.
        Some of the more significant formations are treated separately.
        1. 1606
          [They] exempted themselues out of their power (by reason of the diuision betwixt them and the Anticaliphes [Fr. Anticaliphes]).
          R. Knolles, translation of J. Bodin, Six Bookes of Common-weale ii. ii. 203
        2. 1615
          Clement the eight,..during the schisme after Bennet the thirteenth, was chosen by certaine Spanish Cardinalls, or Anticardinalls [French Anticardinaux].
          E. Grimeston, translation of P. d'Avity, Estates 462
        3. 1692
          None can suppose an Antimonarch's Title good, till he has shewn that the first Monarch's Title is not so.
          H. Dodwell, Vindication of Deprived Bishops i. 18
        4. 1856
          [They] protested against the Bremen election, and elected an anti-archbishop, in the person of its Dean, Burkhard.
          M. M. Busk, Mediæval Popes, Emperors, Kings, & Crusaders vol. III. iii. x. 79
        5. 1864
          Bownell..was re-instituted on 22nd of September, 1591; North the anti-vicar having apparently held the preferment for ten years.
          Transactions London & Middlesex Archaeol. Society vol. 2 212
        6. 1967
          For several months the implications of papal authority were hotly disputed within the Order, and we know of the election of an anti-Master..who may have been Grand Commander in 1162.
          J. Riley-Smith, Knights St. John Jerusalem & Cyprus iii. 62
        7. 1992
          Fr. Leonardo de Buonafede, miles and ‘anti-Treasurer’ of the Hospital drew up a constitution for the sisters.
          Revue Mabillon vol. 64 126
      2. 1.a.ii.
      3. 1.a.iii.
        Prefixed to personal names, as anti-Moses, anti-Paul, etc. Cf. anti-Caesar n.
        1. 1603
          Quicke Antihorace though I place thee heere, Together with yong Mœlibee thy frend: And Hewres last Musæus.
          H. Chettle, Englandes Mourning Garment sig. D3
        2. 1660
          I might term many of these men Anti-Mephiboshets.
          T. Fuller, Mixt Contemplations i. xii. 20
        3. a1667
          An Anti-Paul, who became all Things to all men, that he might destroy all.
          A. Cowley, Liberty in Works (1710) vol. II. 676
        4. 1685
          They pretend an Anti-Mahomet shall come, that Jesus Christ shall descend from Heaven to kill him, and establish the Mahometan Religion.
          A. Lovell, translation of R. Simon, Critical History of Religions Eastern Nations xv. 151
        5. 1858
          The first type of Antichrist in the O.T. [= Old Testament] is Balaam, the Anti-Moses, who, as a false prophet, misused his gifts.
          J. H. A. Bomberger, Protestant Theol. & Ecclesiastical Encyclopedia vol. I. 176/2
        6. 1895
          Bismarck was to prove the correlative, or rather the corrective, of the Corsican upstart—an anti-Napoleon.
          C. Lowe, Bismarck's Table-talk i. 2
        7. 1922
          Jesus is, to him [sc. Giovanni Papini],..the Anti-Moses, the Anti-Satan, the Anti-Circe, the Anti-Nietzsche.
          Freeman 4 January 404/2
        8. 2008
          In overturning Paul's ‘perversion’ of Jesus' gospel, Nietzsche would be like Paul—a kind of modern Paul or even an ‘anti-Paul’.
          B. E. Benson, Pious Nietzsche 75
    2. 1.b.
      1. 1.b.i.
        Forming nouns denoting a thing which is of the same kind as the second element, but which is placed or acting in opposition to it, or as a counterpart to it; ‘counter-’. Also rarely forming verbs denoting action of this kind: see anti-maxim v., anti-rumour v.
        Some of the more established formations of this type are treated separately.
        1. 1601
          The third is your Soldiers face..The Anti-face to this, is your Lawyers face.
          B. Jonson, Fountaine of Selfe-love ii. iii. sig. D3v
        2. 1642
          To set up an antifame against it [sc. a ridiculous report].
          T. Fuller, Holy State iii. xxiii. 213
        3. 1652
          A short discourse: shewing, That they only ought to preach who are ordained Ministers... Now printed upon the Anti-preaching of some against it in the same Pulpit.
          J. Ferriby, Lawfull Preacher (title page)
        4. 1665
          Besides One great Cause and Source of Good, there was an Anti-Principle of Evil.
          J. Spencer, Discourse Prodigies (ed. 2) 168
        5. a1774
          Those anti-ejaculations..bear a great part in the ceremony.
          A. Tucker, Light of Nature Pursued (1777) vol. III. iii. 377
        6. 1801
          A volition to wink, which by habit becomes stronger than the antivolition not to wink.
          E. Darwin, Zoonomia vol. IV. 233
        7. 1844
          You make leagues and anti-leagues for the sake of your morsel of bread.
          Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine vol. 55 559
        8. 1878
          It will make the explanation somewhat simpler, if we suppose the tides to be raised by a moon and antimoon diametrically opposite to one another.
          Nature 19 September 580/1
        9. 1885
          Anti-maximed, matched with ‘anti-maxims’ or counter-maxims.
          New English Dictionary
        10. 1912
          The lad who feels a yearning to stay away from school on a spring morning..sways from impulse to anti-impulse.
          P. Klapper, Princ. Educ. Practice xxiii. 429
        11. 1987
          It is urgently necessary that God..should disturb us out of our present postures and anti-postures.
          Times 5 June 12/3
      2. 1.b.ii.
    3. 1.c.
      1. 1.c.i.
        Forming nouns denoting the opposite, contrary, or antithesis of what is denoted by the second element.
        Some of the more established formations of this type are treated separately.
        In some cases denoting something which has the effect of counteracting or cancelling out what is denoted by the first element, and as such not always clearly distinguishable from sense 1b.
        1. 1737
          I would only just remark, in Justice to these at present Anti-Patriots, that if they had another Cue given them, they would, I believe, exalt every Measure taken against the Spaniards.
          Weekly Misc. 11 November
        2. 1751
          That horrid and detested vale, which Tamora describes in Titus Andronicus..is a perfect contrast to Ælian's, and may be called an Anti-tempe.
          R. Hurd, Discourse Poetical Imitation in Horace, Epistola ad Augustum 118
        3. 1837
          Beggary..appears to be one of the fruits of that gigantic tree of anti-knowledge.
          Tait's Edinburgh Magazine July 446/2
        4. 1844
          An animal the inverse of the lion—an animal good in all the qualities which render the lion dangerous..and which, for the present, may be called an Anti-Lion.
          P. Godwin, Popular View Doctr. C. Fourier x. 105
        5. 1861
          They dream of a ‘Constitution’ to support slavery, which honest men shall not alter. They might as well dream of an Anti-Decalogue.
          T. P. Thompson, Audi Alteram Partem vol. III. cliii. 153
        6. 1953
          First, there is the phase of highly developed individual vision; secondly that of anti-vision and despair.
          S. Spender, Creative Element 13
        7. 1958
          I can see why its sponsors call it an ‘anti-expresso bar’. Most of the coffee-bars..are dark, fancily decorated dives... The Carlisle Street building, however, is light, simple, [etc.].
          New Statesman 30 August 243/2
        8. 1961
          These inhibiting objects, events, and ideas I call anti-triggers.
          M. Laski, Ecstasy xviii. 176
        9. 1985
          Teenagers are taking instruction from each other in anti-elocution, or teenspeak.
          Times 3 September 8
        10. 1997
          [She] has made a career of playing the anti-babe. No bubbly bimbo roles for her.
          Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 28 August (What's On section) 5/1
      2. 1.c.ii.
    4. 1.d.
      1. 1.d.i.
        spec. Used in a neutral or positive sense to designate a form of art, literature, cinema, etc., which is seemingly opposed to the basic conventions or traditions of the form in question or to the form itself. See also anti-art n. A.2, anti-novel n.
        Perhaps influenced by earlier similar uses in other languages; cf. quots. 1913, 1920.
        1. [1913
          These ideas [of Marinetti's] are succinctly, though no doubt extravagantly, set out in the two manifestos entitled Wireless Imagination and Words at Liberty and The Futurist Anti-Tradition [It. L'Antitradizione Futuristica].
          H. B. Samuel, Modernities 236]
        2. [1920
          Le 2 mars 1920, 2e manifestation​ de la Section d'or. Anti-littérature Dada—Anti-musique Dada—Anti-peinture Dada. On exposera pour la première fois des tableaux Dada à Paris.
          Bulletin Dada]
        3. 1930
          We are facing a movement of anti-poetry.
          transition June 18
        4. 1935
          The third review to appear was Littérature (which really meant Anti-literature).
          D. Gascoyne, Short Survey Surrealism ii. 35
        5. 1955
          The nature of painting is abstraction... It is not only ‘anti-painting’ that reminds us, in terms all too obvious, that a work of art exists only in the degree to which it denies itself, exceeds itself, blasphemes.
          J. Bazaine in A. C. Ritchie, New Decade 12
        6. 1958
          His [sc. Debord's] celebrated anti-film Hurlements en Faveur de Sade is chiefly notable for the fact that the uproar it creates is designed and predictable.
          Architectural Review vol. 124 1/1
        7. 1963
          One begins to apply these doctrines to the anti-play, to Mr. Ionesco and to the other writers who seem to be..in alliance with him.
          Times 11 February 5/2
        8. 1985
          Her [sc. Yoko Ono's] humorless parody of avant-garde anti-sculpture.
          New York 2 December 156/1
        9. 2010
          The Hundefräulein Papers is a potpourri, a gallimaufry, of lyrics, elegies, found poetry, anti-poems, testamentary tributes and personal anecdotes.
          Telegraph-Jrnl. (New Brunswick) (Nexis) 30 January g6
      2. 1.d.ii.
        Hence used to designate an exponent of such a form of art, literature, etc.
        1. 1935
          [Picabia] was known to the others as the Anti-painter, just as Tzara was known as the Anti-philosopher.
          D. Gascoyne, Short Survey Surrealism ii. 30
        2. 1959
          The anti-artists are those who in their work have attempted to deny or break with every conceivable canon of style, taste, or convention that may have been established by the practice of artists in the past.
          Listener 5 November 764/1
        3. 1962
          The new French school of ‘anti-novelists’.
          Listener 8 March 406/1
        4. 2010
          The ‘Eternal Network’, an underground affiliation of artists, poets and anti-artists who deal with text, image, sound, object and performance.
          St. Louis (Missouri) Post-Dispatch (Nexis) 9 June a11
    5. 1.e.
      Particle Physics.
      1. 1.e.i.
        Forming the names of antiparticles, as anti-electron, antineutrino, antineutron, etc. See antiparticle n.
        See also antiproton n., antiquark n.
        1. 1931
          A new kind of particle, unknown to experimental physics, having the same mass and opposite charge to an electron. We may call such a particle an anti-electron.
          P. A. M. Dirac in Proceedings of Royal Society A. vol. 133 61
        2. 1959
          The main ingredients of anti-matter—antiprotons, antineutrons and anti-electrons—can be set in the tables alongside the protons, neutrons and electrons of which ordinary matter is composed.
          New Scientist 5 November 854/1
        3. 1962
          The antineutrino..accompanies electron emission, whereas the neutrino is associated with positron emission.
          Newnes Concise Encyclopaedia of Nuclear Energy 521/1
        4. 1989
          Nuclear particles of matter are baryons, while those of antimatter are antibaryons.
          A. Guth & P. Steinhardt in P. Davies, New Physics iii. 40/2
        5. 2012
          A W+ particle which decays into an anti-lepton (such as a positron) and its corresponding neutrino.
          J. E. Baggott, Higgs ix. 177
        particle physics
      2. 1.e.ii.
        Forming adjectives and nouns denoting antiquarks of particular flavours (flavour n. 5), as anticharm, antidown, antistrange, antiup, etc. See antiquark n.
        1. 1972
          The φ is composed of strange and antistrange quarks whereas ρ and π have only ordinary up and down quarks.
          M. Gell-Mann in Acta Physica Austriaca Supplement vol. 9 739
        2. 1979
          It may be harder to create extra up quarks than extra down quarks, and hence anti-up quarks than anti-down quarks.
          Nuclear Physics B. vol. 149 498
        3. 1995
          The Higgs, if it is not too massive, is expected to decay most of the time into a pair of particles, one a bottom and the other an antibottom.
          Scientific American May 79
        4. 1997
          Supersymmetry could allow a gluino (hypothetical partner to a gluon) to decay into a top-antitop pair.
          Scientific American September 41/1
        5. 2014
          [They] are confident that Z(4430) is a single particle made up of four quarks–most likely a charm, anticharm, down and antiup.
          Science News 17 May 12/3
        particle physics
      3. 1.e.iii.
        Forming the names of atomic nuclei or chemical elements composed of antiparticles, as antideuteron, antihelium, antihydrogen, etc.; (also, in antiatom) denoting an atom composed of antiparticles.
        In quot. 1898: a type of hypothetical atom which is gravitationally repelled by other atoms.
        1. [1898
          The atom and the anti-atom may enter into chemical combination, because at small distances molecular forces would overpower gravitational repulsion.
          A. Schuster in Nature 18 August 367/2]
        2. 1953
          An atom of ‘antihydrogen’ would have a positron revolving around a negative proton as the nucleus.
          Popular Mechanics August 216/2
        3. 1970
          Soviet physicists have reported the creation and detection of nuclei of anti-helium.
          Times 23 February 5/6
        4. 1996
          An ‘anti-atom’—the element antihydrogen—has been created by scientists, marking the first foray into a world of anti-matter than has long been the domain only of science fiction writers.
          Daily Telegraph 4 January 4/8
        5. 2013
          Cosmic-ray protons or antiprotons interact with the interstellar medium to produce antideuterons.
          Proceedings 10th UCLA Symp. Sources & Detection Dark Matter & Dark Energy in Universe 106
        particle physics
  2. 2.
    1. 2.a.
      Prefixed to adjectives, forming adjectives with the sense ‘that is the opposite of ——’, or (less emphatically) ‘that is not at all ——’. (In the latter sense often no more than a hyperbolic alternative to un-.) Hence also forming homographic nouns, meaning either ‘that which is denoted by the adjective’ or ‘a person with the qualities or attitudes denoted by the adjective’. Also rarely forming verbs related to such adjectives: see e.g. antipassivize in quot. 1979.
      In some cases, where the adjective that forms the second element is formed on or may be associated with a particular noun, there may be some admixture of the sense ‘opposed or antagonistic to what is implied by the associated noun’ (cf. sense 3a.i).
      1. a1774
        That antiprudential maxim..A short life and a merry one.
        A. Tucker, Light of Nature Pursued (1777) vol. III. iv. 141
      2. 1805
        The most ludicrous superstitions of his countrymen are all espoused by this antisceptical writer.
        Annual Review vol. 3 279/2
      3. 1833
        The beautiful, sunny, flowery, first of May..is..called, par excellence, chimney-sweepers' day. Oh! ye poetical souls, was ever term to anti-melodious,—so anti-euphonious,—so far removed from poetic musings!
        American Monthly Magazine August 391
      4. 1846
        The tendency of the Scottish philosophy..was clearly and decidedly anti-sensational.
        J. D. Morell, Historical & Critical View of Speculative Philosophy vol. II. v. 18
      5. 1890
        The conception of consciousness as a purely cognitive form of being..is thoroughly anti-psychological.
        W. James, Principles of Psychology vol. I. v. 141
      6. 1938
        How unfunny it is, how non-comic, how anti-droll!
        Sunday Times 9 January 4/2
      7. 1957
        Ranging from the most explicitly allegorical, consistent with being literature at all..to the most elusive, anti-explicit and anti-allegorical.
        N. Frye, Anatomy of Criticism 91
      8. 1978
        Slavery is..totally unjust, or to be exact—antijust.
        Dædalus Summer 15
      9. 1979
        Where the common NP is in deep A function in the relative clause, it must be antipassivized.
        Language vol. 55 128
      10. 2007
        ‘The nanny state,’ he says with venom... Turkey, by contrast [with Britain], is positively anti-nannyish.
        Sunday Times (Nexis) 5 August (News Review section) 5
    2. 2.b.
  3. 3.
    Formations in which anti- stands in prepositional relation to a noun, either actual or implied, meaning ‘against’ (in various senses). Cf. pro- prefix1 2b.
    This is now overwhelmingly the prevalent use of the prefix, and is often present to some extent in other senses; formations with anti- in this sense are virtually unlimited in number, and only a representative selection of the possible types of combination is illustrated at this entry; many of the more common examples are treated as separate main entries.
    1. 3.a.
      Forming adjectives (mainly, but not exclusively used attributively) with the sense ‘opposed, hostile, antagonistic to, or directed against (what is denoted or effectively implied by the second element)’. In many cases also forming homographic nouns, with either of two main senses: (a) (as a count noun) ‘a person opposed or antagonistic to what is denoted or implied by the second element’ (cf. sense 3b.i.iii); (b) (less commonly, as a mass noun) ‘opposition or antagonism to what is denoted or implied by the second element’ (cf. sense 3c).
      1. 3.a.i.
        1. 3.a.i.i.
          Prefixed to an adjective formed from a common noun by suffixation, to a suffixed adjective corresponding to such a noun, or to a (usually suffixed) adjective associated more indirectly with a noun (e.g. ecclesiastical, being associated with church on semantic grounds). Also sometimes combined ad hoc with a word or stem together with a suffix to form an adjective in the same sense, even when the suffixed form is already established.
          See also sense 3b.i for some similar uses where use as a corresponding noun is attested earlier than an adjectival use.
          In some cases the effect of the prefix is as much that of reversal of the sense of the adjective (cf. sense 2) as of opposition or antagonism to the implied or associated noun.
          Some of the more established formations of this type are treated separately.
          1. 1659
            That Anti-infantall Christ which they [sc. Anabaptists] say is so predominant in them.
            J. Gauden, Ἱερα Δακρυα 279
          2. 1806
            The extracts..exhibit a great verbal coincidence with the text of the Codex Vaticanus, (which contains more of the anti-hexaplarian readings than our Codex Alexandrinus).
            Monthly Review November 252
          3. 1828
            Sandys..is any thing but an anti-bridal poet.
            L. Hunt, Lord Byron & Some Contemporary 46
          4. 1831
            My Mission in London is Anti-gigmanic from heart to skin.
            T. Carlyle, Letter 7 July in Collected Letters T. & Jane Welsh Carlyle (1976) vol. V. 298
          5. 1865
            Mr. Mansfield, who has always been anti-street-musical, sentenced them to pay a fine of 40s.
            Pall Mall Gazette 10 June 9
          6. 1881
            The wives of the Anti-Railwayist Faction were decorously triumphant.
            R. C. Praed, Policy & Passion vol. I. xiv. 303
          7. 1887
            The old Church Fathers..were not only unæsthetic but positively anti-æsthetic. Everything pleasing to the senses was denounced by them.
            H. T. Finck, Romantic Love & Personal Beauty vol. I. 173
          8. 1945
            Biological naturalism has been used to defend equalitarianism as well as the anti-equalitarian doctrine of the rule of the strong.
            K. R. Popper, Open Society vol. I. v. 57
          9. 2003
            The anti-laissez-faire-ist notion that progress will be retarded so long as societies ‘slumber, and leave things to themselves’.
            L. M. E. Goodlad, Victorian Lit. & Victorian State i. 29
        2. 3.a.i.ii.
        3. 3.a.i.iii.
          Prefixed to adjectives derived from or relating to proper names.
          Used esp. with adjectives of this type which signify a particular viewpoint, belief, party, etc., and with adjectives relating to a particular country, people, etc.
      2. 3.a.ii.
        1. 3.a.ii.i.
          Prefixed to nouns and noun phrases.
          Where the second element is a noun of action ending in ‑ing which is homographic with a participial adjective, the word may in some cases have been formed on the latter.
          See also sense 3c.iii for some similar uses where use as a corresponding noun is attested earlier than an adjectival use.
          Some of the more established formations of this type are treated separately.
          1. 1649
            Surely they will not heare, neither indeed will they cease for they are a Rebellious House; which appeares by these their Anti-Monarchy Resolves.
            Briefe-answere to Late-resolves 6
          2. 1662
            He was..rail'd at by the (then) significant rabble of the Anti-church-government Puppies.
            H. Foulis, History of Wicked Plots ii. vi. 86
          3. 1767
            Douglass..had wrote well upon the paper currency and had been the oracle of the anti-paper party.
            T. Hutchinson, History of Province of Massachusets-Bay, 1691–1750 iv. 437
          4. 1799
            To such individuals I would propose to form themselves into anti-burial societies.
            Spirit of Public Journals vol. 2 232
          5. 1826
            A petition from certain manufacturers of Chalford..signing themselves Members of the Anti-bread Tax Association, No. 1.
            Ipswich Journal 2 December
          6. 1835
            One great anti-unjust-property-union.
            T. P. Thompson, Exercises vol. III. 268
          7. 1839
            There is more quiet and less rowdying..here than in Boston, with all its anti-drinking, anti-bellringing and other anti-noise making laws.
            Daily Picayune (New Orleans) 26 February 2/4
          8. 1845
            Great Anti-state-endowment Meeting at Finsbury.
            E. Miall in Nonconformist vol. 5 275
          9. 1846
            This present year..has witnessed the formation of an Anti-Malt-Tax Association.
            Oxford & Cambridge Review July 83
          10. 1868
            In these three papers, we have the case of the anti-comment party presented from every point of view and with all desirable fulness.
            W. D. Whitney in Journal of American Oriental Society vol. 9 p. xxv
          11. 1882
            It's the old formula for the anti-capital-punishment fellows.
            Century Magazine February 578/1
          12. 1906
            As to kissing..could not we start an anti-kissing league?
            Daily Chronicle 14 August 4/7
          13. ?1949
            He's sensitive as a kid about being tough and anti-pansy—remember when he threw his beer all over that chap with long hair?
            D. Thomas, Collected Letters (1987) 720
          14. 1958
            The result of a vigorous anti-illiteracy campaign is that 1,750,000 are attending classes.
            New Statesman 15 November 660/2
          15. 1997
            Clauses three, five, eight, eleven and twelve [of the Twelve Conclusions] are..respectively anti-buggery, anti-supranatural, anti-pilgrimage, anti-abortion, and anti-arts and crafts.
            M. Aston & C. Richmond, Lollardy & Gentry Later Middle Ages 5
          16. 2008
            There was a strong anti-smallpox-vaccine movement in Leicester well into the 1930s, despite its demonstrable benefits.
            B. Goldacre, Bad Science xv. 275
        2. 3.a.ii.ii.
      3. 3.a.iii.
        Prefixed to proper names.
        1. 1787
          Had there existed in the kingdom such a faction as an Anti-Brunswick faction, to that faction he should have certainly imputed the invention of so malicious a falsehood.
          Parliamentary Register 1781–96 vol. XXII. 228
        2. 1810
          This provoked from the Anti-Kemble party a violent hiss.
          Covent Garden Journal 210
        3. 1855
          Great Britain,..the anti-Russia mania in.
          General Index Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine 219/1
        4. 1860
          Mr. Philips, taking the anti-Darwin side of the question, is nearly ready.
          British Controversialist 3rd Series vol. 4 360/1
        5. 1898
          It is these who are the chief promoters of the anti-Dreyfus and anti-Zola agitation.
          Speaker 12 March 313/2
        6. 1940
          Comedy songs that are anti-Hitler the public are at first inclined to go for.
          T. Harrison & C. Madge, War begins at Home ix. 241
        7. 1964
          Saadi and his followers were sent to Lisbon temporarily and the anti-Saadi wing..were sent to Beirut.
          Annual Register 1963 311
        8. 1975
          Favourites of the 1966–70 Parliament were decimal currency, the two-tier postal service, and the anti-Stansted campaign.
          J. P. Morgan, House of Lords & Labour Government ii. 75
        9. 2007
          Their new record, ‘Do the Stalinistka’, features a darkly funny anti-Putin title track.
          New Yorker 2 April 14/1
    2. 3.b.
      1. 3.b.i.
        1. 3.b.i.i.
          Prefixed to suffixed nouns, forming nouns with the sense ‘a person opposed or antagonistic to what is denoted or implied by the second element’, and hence also homographic adjectives with the sense ‘opposed or antagonistic to what is denoted or implied by the second element’. Also combined ad hoc with a word, name, or stem together with a suffix (even when this suffixed form is already established as an independent word) to form a noun with the sense ‘a person opposed or antagonistic to what is denoted or implied by this word, name, or stem’.
          These formations are analogous to those at 3a.i, but in these cases the noun is the earlier (and sometimes the only) formation, rather than being a later development from the homographic adjective.
          Where the second element denotes a person holding a particular belief or position, as is often the case with suffixes such as ‑arian, ‑ist, and ‑ite, the sense may be expressed more straightforwardly as ‘(a person) holding the opposite belief or position to this’.
          Some of the more established formations of this type are treated separately.
          1. 1649
            Is not the world full of Atheists, Antiscripturists.., Antispiritists (πνευματομάχοι they were called of old) and may not we call a spade a spade?
            Church-levellers 7
          2. a1661
            John of Oxford was..a great Anti-Becketist.
            T. Fuller, History of Worthies of England (1662) Oxf. 337
          3. a1661
            The Anti-Friarists maintaining, that such were Rogues.
            T. Fuller, History of Worthies of England (1662) Wilts. 156
          4. 1678
            Having given the proper Hypotheses of the Predeterminants,..we now procede to lay down the proper Antitheses of the Antipredeterminants.
            T. Gale, Court of Gentiles: Part IV iii. vii. 214
          5. 1682
            This Anti-Pre-existentiary is such a Trifler.
            H. More, Annot. Lux Orientalis 14 in Two Choice & Useful Treatises
          6. 1751
            The Anti-Jansenists of the Church of Rome.
            J. Jortin, Remarks on Ecclesiastical History vol. I. 238
          7. 1751
            Antiadiaphorists..the rigid Lutherans who disavowed the episcopal jurisdiction, and many of the church-ceremonies, retained by the moderate Lutherans.
            Chambers's Cyclopædia (ed. 7)
          8. 1786
            One simple, general plan once sketch'd out to him, by either the fallowist or anti-fallowist, would be his infallible ‘jus et norma’ to square by.
            Annals of Agriculture vol. 5 441
          9. 1807
            Whether Dr. Watkins, or the Anti-Bucerist, has been the more attentive reader of English ecclesiastical history.
            W. Taylor in Monthly Magazine vol. 24 24
          10. 1818
            A prudent monk, their reader and librarian..(Himself an anti-tintinnabularian).
            ‘W. Whistlecraft’ & ‘R. Whistlecraft’, Prospectus National Work King Arthur (ed. 2) iii. xxxi. 16
          11. 1827
            Neither the ascetics, nor the anti-ascetics, seem to be aware that [etc.].
            J. C. Hare & A. W. Hare, Guesses at Truth vol. I. 219
          12. 1836
            Maintained by the antiatonementists.
            J. Gilbert, Christian Atonement iii. 89
          13. 1839
            Your humble servant and other antihumbuggists.
            W. M. Thackeray in Fraser's Magazine December 683/1
          14. a1845
            I, as one of the anti-surplicians, not liking to show anything of the white feather.
            R. H. Barham, Letter in R. H. D. Barham, Life & Letters R. H. Barham (1870) vol. II. ix. 139
          15. 1880
            The Local Optionists, the Anti-contagious-Diseasists.
            W. Wren in Daily News 28 January 2/4
          16. 1882
            The anti-lacrossers cheered.
            Sun 14 May 6/5
          17. 1889
            He is by no means an anti-Wagnerite.
            G. B. Shaw in Star 29 November 2/4
          18. 1906
            The ‘anti-dolly-ists’ (I am an anti-dolly-ist) maintain that the player has no right to know where the tee is.
            Country Life 15 December 866/1
          19. 1925
            The New Dawn about to be ushered in by the birth-controllers, anti-child-laborites, pacifists, modernists [etc.].
            American Mercury October 193/1
          20. 1983
            Clement Scott, one of the most vehement anti-Ibsenites among London's theatre-critics at the time.
            I. Britain in I. Donaldson, Transformations Modern European Drama ii. 27
          21. 2004
            Are all those anti-wind farm-ites leading a green lifestyle and biking to work, reading by candle etc?
            N. Devon Journal (Nexis) 26 August 47
        2. 3.b.i.ii.
        3. 3.b.i.iii.
          Prefixed to nouns without a suffix, with the same meaning as that described at sense 3b.i.i.
      2. 3.b.ii.
        1. 3.b.ii.i.
          Prefixed to agent nouns, forming nouns with the sense ‘a person opposed to the action, practice, policy, etc., expressed by the verb implied by the second element’.
          Some of the more established formations of this type are treated separately.
          1. 1805
            The two parties were distinguished by the name of lifters and anti-lifters.
            R. Forsyth, Beauties of Scotland vol. II. 520
          2. 1846
            The anti-hangers raged furiously against the hangers for their blood-thirstiness and non-obedience to the commandments.
            Knickerbocker January 79
          3. 1914
            It was Venables..who day after day had paraded London dressed in the costume of a brown dog, until arrested for biting an anti-vivisector in the leg.
            A. A. Milne, Once a Week 299
          4. 1961
            The anti-decimalisers counter attack.
            Financial Times 6 May 6/3 (headline)
          5. 1992
            The anti-screeners point out that the disease is predominantly a disease of old men.
            Independent 29 September 13/3
          6. 2009
            Emerson..was as great an anti-systematizer as Nietzsche.
            New York Review of Books 3 December 35/1
        2. 3.b.ii.ii.
    3. 3.c.
      1. 3.c.i.
        Prefixed to (usually suffixed) nouns denoting a particular belief, standpoint, practice, etc., forming nouns with the sense ‘opposition or antagonism to, or disavowal of, what is denoted by the second element’. Also combined ad hoc with a word, name, or stem together with a suffix to form a noun with the sense ‘opposition or antagonism to, or scepticism regarding, what is expressed by the word, name, or stem, or the principles associated with it’; this is often the sense even where the second element is already an established word.
        Some of the more established formations of this type are treated separately.
        1. 1683
          Anti-Dodwellisme, being two very curious tracts, formerly written by the renowned Hugo Grotius.
          W. Baxter (title)
        2. 1841
          Besides the anti-mango-and-curry-ism, there is the broad-cloth school of notoriety.
          ‘An Indian Officer’, Society in India vol. I. x. 131
        3. 1843
          The potentiality of antiturnpikeism is proclaimed.
          E. Miall in Nonconformist vol. 3 446
        4. 1865
          Anti-pewism has come out against Protestantism.
          Churchman 14 December 1405/2
        5. 1892
          C. S. [= Clement Scott]..is now the recognised leader of anti-Ibsenism.
          G. B. Shaw, Letter 21 April (1965) vol. I. 337
        6. 1893
          Superstitious atheism—sensational anti-Goddity all over.
          G. B. Shaw, Letter 28 April (1965) vol. I. 393
        7. 1900
          Anti-imperialism and anti-old gloryism have been made to appear so absurd that [etc.].
          American Economist 2 November 210/2
        8. 1907
          If that be my friend Pratt's definition of a pragmatist, I can only concur with his antipragmatism.
          W. James in Journal of Philosophy, Psychology & Scientific Methods vol. 4 465
        9. 1920
          He has given a series of public lectures on Buddhism in Berlin which have had a remarkable success in that late stronghold of Anti-Yellow-Peril-ism.
          Journal Burma Research Society vol. 10 109/1
        10. 1928
          The new anti-Wagnerism, expressing itself on the one hand in music which rejects his technical bases and on the other in the revived interest in the classics.
          Times 5 May 10/2
        11. 1993
          It's possible to go overboard with anti-saucism.
          Guardian 6 November (Weekend Supplement) 61/2
      2. 3.c.ii.
        With second elements ending in ‑ism.
        Formations in this sense are also often used as a modifier.
      3. 3.c.iii.
        With second elements not ending in ‑ism.
        See also sense 3a.ii for some similar uses where use as a corresponding adjective is attested earlier than a noun use.
    4. 3.d.
      1. 3.d.i.
        Forming adjectives with the sense ‘that inhibits, limits, or counteracts an action, process, condition, etc., denoted or implied by the second element, or the undesirable effects produced by this’, and hence also forming homographic nouns to denote an agent, device, product, etc., having such an inhibiting, limiting, etc., effect. Also rarely forming verbs relating to such adjectives and nouns.
        1. 3.d.i.i.
          With suffixed adjectives formed on or corresponding to a noun denoting an action, process, condition, effect, etc.
          Used particularly with reference to the treatment of disease. See also antibiotic adj. & n., anti-coagulant n., anti-convulsant n., anti-oxidant n., antipruritic adj., etc.
        2. 3.d.i.ii.
          With nouns denoting an action, process, condition, effect, etc. In later use also with verbs expressing such an action, process, etc.
      2. 3.d.ii.
        1. 3.d.ii.i.
          Biology and Physiology. Forming names of agents that are inhibitors, antagonists, or inactivators of another substance; spec. (Immunology) forming names of antibodies or antisera directed against another substance. Also rarely forming adjectives relating to such nouns. See also antihistamine n., antitoxin n. Cf. antibody n.
        2. 3.d.ii.ii.
          Immunology. Forming adjectives designating an antiserum or antibody directed against a specific blood group antigen (e.g. A, B, etc.). Also forming homographic nouns denoting such an antiserum or antibody.
        3. 3.d.ii.iii.
          Immunology. Forming adjectives designating an antiserum or antibody directed against antigens derived from the species named by the second element.
          Often preceded by the name of the species in which the antiserum or antibody is produced.
          1. 1900
            The agglutinating action was only present in the anti-sheep's globulin serum.
            Lancet 14 July 98/2
          2. 1902
            The anti-human serum gives a precipitate with the blood of the anthropoid apes that is not to be distinguished from that obtained from human blood.
            Sci. Amer. Supplement 4 October 22369/3
          3. 1932
            In the case of the duck tumour, neutralization was possible with an anti-duck serum and with an anti-tumour serum.
            British Medical Journal 27 February 396/1
          4. 1993
            The cells were incubated with..biotinylated goat anti-rat immunoglobulin G.
            Cell vol. 73 245/1
          5. 2008
            Specific immunoassays were developed to detect anti-horse, anti-chicken and anti-bovine immunoglobulins in human IgG preparations.
            Toxicon vol. 51 10
          immunology
      3. 3.d.iii.
        1. 3.d.iii.i.
          Prefixed to nouns to form adjectives designating equipment, measures, etc., intended to defend against or combat specific weapons, vehicles, types of attack, etc.
          Some of the more established formations of this type are treated separately. See also anti-aircraft adj. & n., anti-tank adj.
          1. 1909
            Anti-airship armament.
            Times 12 April 13/3 (headline)
          2. 1919
            Probably some sort of patrol or anti-U-boat worker, for a guess, perhaps, a ‘Q’.
            L. R. Freeman, Sea-hounds ix. 198
          3. 1934
            The anti-air-raid blinds that had to be fitted on all the windows.
            J. Hilton, Good-bye, Mr. Chips xiv. 95
          4. 1937
            Taking the United States into the lead insofar as anti-bomber fighters are concerned.
            New Castle (Pennsylvania) News 21 July 4/1
          5. 1952
            The proximity fuse actually gave an anti-aircraft and anti-guided missile shell a brain.
            McKean County (Pennsylvania) Democrat 29 May 1/2
          6. 1990
            Accommodation is generally in Portakabins surrounded by blast-proof walls..and covered by anti-mortar roofs.
            A. Beevor, Inside British Army xvii. 198
          7. 2005
            Every night the rifle companies sent out anti-IED patrols.
            B. West, No True Glory iii. 27
        2. 3.d.iii.ii.
    5. 3.e.
      With reduplication of the prefix, forming adjectives and nouns expressing the idea of opposing opposition to something, counteracting counteraction, etc. See also anti-anti adj. & n.
      In quot. 1765 as part of the pseudonym of a correspondent to a periodical.
      1. 1765
        Anti-anti-Sejanus.
        Public Advertiser 11 October (signature of letter)
      2. 1829
        We are not, after all, so much of an anti-anti-mason, but that we can cheerfully support an anti-masonic candidate for congress, in preference to [etc.].
        Vermont Watchman & State Gazette 17 March
      3. 1865
        I suppose I am a dreadful old fogy, but my anti-anti-slavery feeling has only been deepened by the events of the war.
        J. C. Gray, Letter 21 April in War Letters J. C. Gray & J. C. Ropes (1927) 472
      4. 1876
        In my judgment, an English politician should neither be philo-Turk nor pro-Christian. He should be Anti-anti-Turk and Anti-anti-Christian.
        Contemporary Review July 346
      5. 1937
        There must now be a tank mounting an anti-anti-tank gun, which can..overwhelm the anti-tank guns with rapid fire.
        Foreign Affairs vol. 16 37
      6. 1953
        A well-worn anti-anti-Communist technique; he denounced..Brownell's handling of the White case as ‘McCarthyism’.
        Times 7 December 24
      7. 1956
        By 1960 we can have an anti-missile missile. That leaves it up to someone to cook up an anti-anti-missile missile.
        Time-Bull. (Van Wert, Ohio) 2 July 4/8
      8. 1994
        The restraint that Maddox criticizes in Holton's anti-anti-science stance is an essential aspect of science.
        Nature 14 July 92/3
      9. 2010
        The Turbin family..are romanticised—at once liberal, open-hearted and anti-antisemitic (if not philosemitic), while also devoutly Orthodox.
        Guardian 20 March (Review section) 17/2