Methodist

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a member or adherent of Methodism, a Protestant Christian movement that grew from the eighteenth-century revival associated with John Wesley

   She grew up as a Methodist but now attends an ecumenical church.

2. 2
   adj

   relating to Methodism, its churches, or its adherents

   The archive holds Methodist sermons from the eighteenth century.

Formed from method + -ist. Methodist had earlier general uses for a person who followed a method, but it became the enduring nickname for the disciplined Oxford religious group around John and Charles Wesley. The name referred to their methodical pattern of prayer, study, worship, and charitable work.

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