secularist
UK[ˈsɛkjʊlərɪst]US[ˈsɛkjələrɪst]
n
A person who advocates the separation of religion from public and social life.
n
A person who does not believe in religion or who rejects religious beliefs.
Morpheme Breakdown
secular
ist
secular
worldly
ist
adherent
Etymology
The word 'secularist' is built upon the adjective 'secular', which originates from the Latin saeculum, meaning 'generation' or 'age'. In Christian Latin, saecularis evolved to denote the temporal, worldly realm in contrast to the eternal, spiritual domain of the church. The suffix '-ist', indicating an adherent to a doctrine, was appended in the 19th century. Thus, a secularist is literally 'one concerned with the affairs of this age/world', a meaning which crystallized into the modern principle of separating religious institutions from civil governance and public life.
Analysis
Structure: secular (worldly) + ist (adherent)
secular: From Latin saecularis (relating to an age or the world), functional role: core adjective/root.
ist: From Greek -istes (agent suffix), via Latin -ista, functional role: noun-forming suffix denoting a person who practices or believes in something.
Examples
The politician was a noted secularist who argued for laws based on human reason rather than religious doctrine.
As a secularist, she believes that public education should be free from religious influence.
The debate featured a theologian and a secularist discussing the role of faith in a modern society.