"extreme radical in the Russian Socialist Revolutionary Party" (one who insists on all his demands ), by 1907, from maximal + -ist, based on Russian maksimalist. Related: Maximalism.
Entries linking to maximalist
maximal adj.
"of the highest or maximum value," 1872, from Latin maximus "greatest" (see maximum (n.)) + -al (1). Related: Maximally.
-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.