Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1968 (SND Vol. VII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
†PRACTICIAN, n. A person who acts or puts into action, a practical man, a doer, an executant as opposed to a theorist. Of Sc. orig., rare in Eng. Also attrib., = practical, down-to-earth, matter-of-fact, as in 1863 quot.Sc. 1863 N.B. Daily Mail (9 Sept.):
The eminently adaptive and practician character of the Americans.Sc. 1899 S. Colvin Letters Stevenson I. 12:
He looked . . . with the eye of the poet and artist, and not those of the practician and calculator.
