Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
⚖️ Moderate or conservative 🧑‍⚖️ A moderate supporter
Thermidorian

Thermidorian

1 9.9
Relating to a move from extreme revolutionary ideas to more moderate, conservative policies
  • adjective
  • /ˌθɜrmɪˈdɔriən/
  • Formal
: termidoriano
  • Historians often discuss the Thermidorian phase as a time when radical ideas were replaced with conservative governance.

Examples

  • The Thermidorian attitude marked a significant departure from the extreme measures previously enacted during the revolution.

  • Association with the Rob Spears following their fall in the Thermidorian reaction.

  • She also demonstrates how thermidorian trends, such as the further spread of indirect voting procedures among the states and the rise of Diaz's dictatorship, pushed the Mexican people off the political center stage, leaving them to simmer in the wings amidst memories of the Constitution.

    Academic text (1997)

  • The shift to more moderate policies after the revolution was termed a Thermidorian change in the political landscape.

Surface Forms

Thermidorian positive

Etymology

The word Thermidorian comes from Thermidor, the name of a summer month in the French Revolutionary calendar, and this uses the root therm- meaning 'heat', like thermometer. Think of the revolution's 'heat' cooling in Thermidor, so Thermidorian describes a move away from extreme revolutionary action toward more moderate or cautious policies.