textualist

[ teks-choo-uh-list ]

noun

1. a person who adheres closely to a text, especially of the Scriptures.
2. a person who is well versed in the text of the Scriptures.
3. Law. a person who adheres to the doctrine that a legal document or statute should be interpreted by determining the relatively objective ordinary meaning of its words and phrases:

   Justice Hugo Black took a literal reading of the Bill of Rights, leading to his reputation as a textualist.

Word History and Origins

Origin of textualist¹

First recorded in 1620–30; textual + -ist

Example Sentences

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a self-proclaimed textualist, was skeptical of gun restrictions as a lower-court judge, too, going so far as to argue in a 2019 dissent that some felons shouldn’t be stripped of their rights to own guns.

From FiveThirtyEight

Tex′tuary, a textualist; Tex′tus, the authoritative text, esp.

From Project Gutenberg