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Jeffersonian

Jeffersonian

7 7.9
Relating to Thomas Jefferson or his ideas about democracy and limited government
  • adjective
  • /ˌdʒɛfərˈsoʊniən/
: jeffersoniano
  • The next two presidents, Harding and Coolidge, were Jeffersonian Republicans backed by Republican Congresses throughout their terms.
  • Jeffersonian ideology
  • Jeffersonian ideal
  • Jeffersonian view

And there is not a real choice there like in Jeffersonian democracies or in Israel.

Examples

  • Many political leaders today still draw inspiration from the Jeffersonian principles of equality and individual rights.

  • Ron Paul represents an inward-looking, neo-isolationist approach to foreign policy that has more in common with classic Jeffersonian ideas than with assertive Jacksonian nationalism.

    Academic text (2011)
  • And there is not a real choice there like in Jeffersonian democracies or in Israel.

  • Our society still struggles with the extent to which it will broadly accept the Jeffersonian notion that the best should be available to all.

    Academic text (2000)
  • In some of their public statements, the Maoists sound like Jeffersonian democrats.

    Academic text (2005)
  • But the industrial agricultural system made the values derived from the Jeffersonian agrarian ideal impossible to achieve for individual farm workers.

    Academic text (2016)
  • The Jeffersonian crowd appeared to Federalists as a "most signal exhibition of the rage of democracy."

    Academic text (2016)
  • Sheepshead Bay makes Chicago look like the Jeffersonian ideal of yeoman farmers governing like gentlemen.

    Blog text (33)
  • A prosperous if not wealthy farmer, Wailes was in the truest Jeffersonian sense a free and independent man.

    Academic text (2017)
  • Hamiltonian and Federalist ideas prevailed in the North while Jeffersonian and Democratic-Republican ideas were strong in the South.

    Blog text (5)

Surface Forms

Jeffersonian positive

Morphology

Jeffersonian = Jefferson (transparent) = Jefferson + ian

Built transparently from the proper name Jefferson plus the adjectival suffix -ian meaning 'relating to Jefferson'.

Etymology

Jeffersonian comes from the name Thomas Jefferson and the ending -ian, which means 'related to' or 'like' a person (as in musician or vegetarian). So something called Jeffersonian has the ideas or qualities of Jefferson, for example support for small government and individual liberty.