1660s and after in various philosophical and theological senses, on model of French matérialiste, from material (n.) + -ist. Also see materialism.
Entries linking to materialist
material n.
late 14c., "component substance, matter from which a thing is made," from material (adj.).
-ist
word-forming element meaning "one who does or makes," also used to indicate adherence to a certain doctrine or custom, from French -iste and directly from Latin -ista (source also of Spanish, Portuguese, Italian -ista), from Greek agent-noun ending -istes, which is from -is-, ending of the stem of verbs in -izein, + agential suffix -tes.
Variant -ister (as in chorister, barrister) is from Old French -istre, on false analogy of ministre. Variant -ista is from Spanish, popularized in American English 1970s by names of Latin-American revolutionary movements.
material (n.)-istmaterialism (n.)materialistic (adj.)