paternalist
1
8.4
- adjective
- /ˌpætərˈnælɪst/
- Formal
:
paternalista
- One of them is paternalist legislation that's passing laws that protect people from themselves.
Examples
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Indian parliamentarians, no longer paternalist trustees but nationalist enablers, echoed these criticisms.
Academic text (2005) -
The United States is now officially one of us: an Old World country complete with class hatred, ethnic Balkanization, bourgeois guilt, and a paternalist ruling elite.
Blog text (24) -
Fukuyama considers any paternalist state as one step back from the goal of mankind, but unlike many neo-conservative thinkers, he declares that sovereign states have the right to act individually.
Blog text (22) -
Moreover, the demographics debate, which claims that one group's expansion will help or hurt Republicans, is founded solely on stereotypes and tends to be proffered by paternalist liberals.
Blog text (23) -
Similarly, those workers who embodied the model of manhood based on the responsible and respectable head of household and who adhered to the company's paternalist recipes for social and cultural improvement often became militant union activists.
Academic text (1996) -
The government's paternalist approach to health care limits patients' choices for their own good.
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Critics argue that paternalist measures can undermine personal responsibility and autonomy.
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Paternalist policies often restrict individual freedoms in the name of public safety.
Synonyms
32
4.5
Being too worried about someone's safety and not letting them do things alone
8
8.1
Treating people like children by making decisions for them
Antonyms
How Paternalistic
58
7.5
30
5.8
32
4.5
- Formal
1
8.4
99
2.0
- Jargon
14
4.9
26
5.3
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Paternalist comes from the old Latin word pater meaning 'father' and the word paternal meaning 'fatherly'. So a paternalist attitude is like a 'fatherly' way of leading: protective and guiding, but also limiting people's freedom.