preservationist

noun

Etymology: Etymology tree English preservation Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íďďō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō) Proto-Hellenic *-tās Ancient Greek -τής (-tḗs) Ancient Greek -ῐστής (-ĭstḗs)bor. Latin -istader. Old French -istebor. Middle English -ist English -ist English preservationist From preservation + -ist.

1. A person who advocates for the preservation of natural or man-made landmarks.

   “Thanks to cheap storage and easy copying, our digital souls have the potential to be truly immortal. But do we really want everything we’ve done online – offhand comments, camera-phone snaps or embarrassing surfing habits – to be preserved for posterity? One school of thought, the “preservationists”, believes we owe it to our descendants.”

   “Last, but very much not least, are the portals of the Ffestiniog Railway's Moelwyn Tunnel. The tunnel's story itself is well told - it was part of the preservationists' deviation required to get around a reservoir that had flooded the earlier route. But the reason for its inclusion here is that it is probably the most recently constructed, properly architected tunnel portal in Britain.”