free-willer

noun free-willers · free willer

1. A person who believes that human beings have free will. […] most of us are “free-willers.” We automatically assume we can shape the future, including our technology, in almost any fashion we wish, at least within the constraints of the natural environment. A small but vocal school of determinists, however, argues that we delude ourselves.

   Opposite: determinist

2. A person who exercises free will. 1847, Ralph Waldo Emerson, journal entry dated May 1847, in Stephen E. Whicher (ed.), Selections from Ralph Waldo Emerson: An Organic Anthology, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1957, p. 310, The Americans are free-willers, fussy, self-asserting, buzzing all round creation.
3. derogatory, historical A person belonging to a sect that rejected the doctrine of predestination. 1614, John Robinson, Of Religious Communion Private, & Publique, “Of the Baptism of Infants,” p. 96[a], Since all are by nature alike children of wrath, I would know of these free-willers, how some become the children of God, & beleevers, & some abyde vnder the wrath of God?

   Similar: Arminian, Pelagian, Remonstrant, Semipelagian · Opposite: Calvinist, predestinarian

4. US, historical An immigrant to the United States who, upon arrival, voluntarily became an indentured servant. 1770, William Eddis, letter dated 20 September, 1770 in Letters from America, Historical and Descriptive, comprising occurrences from 1769, to 1777, inclusive, London: for the author, 1792, pp. 63-64, Persons in a state of servitude are under four distinct denominations: negroes, who are the entire

   Similar: redemptioner