populist
23
7.0
- noun
- /ˈpɑpjəlɪst/
:
populista
- The politician's speeches resonated with the crowd because he presented himself as a populist champion of the ordinary working class.
- populist parties
- populist movement
- populist and nationalist
He's power hungry, he's corrupt, he is a populist.
- He's power hungry, he's corrupt, he is a populist.
- They're the good kind of populist, and populist messages spread.
- So this is quite a clear allegiance to a sort of populist, right.
- By the way, the president of the incumbent Hoover was a staunch Republican conservative populist.
Examples
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They're the good kind of populist, and populist messages spread.
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Cherokee County had gravitated strongly to the Populist movement in the 1890s.
Academic text (2013) -
And the young, I think, speaks to this very large and growing populist movement that we're seeing both the United States and around the world.
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And those policies should be informed and based on science and not based on sort of populist politics.
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Why are we seeing this populist surge now?
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And then creates the types of areas that will vote for a right wing populist such as Trump.
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His pose was that of the populist, looking out for the little guy.
Fiction book (1992) -
He is a populist, you know, in the same sense that we throw around the term today.
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So Trump wins the United States, Brexit happens in the UK, that's a right wing populist turn in Europe.
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Finally, she is a democratic populist who favors meaningful local participation in government decisions that affect a community.
Academic text (2001)
Synonyms
19
9.3
A political leader who gains support by stirring up people's fears and feelings
A person who tries to win support by saying what many people want to hear
Antonyms
Compounds
1
7.5
A former US political party from the 1890s that supported farmers, more silver money, and government control of railroads
How Populist
Surface Forms
Morphology
populist = people (semi-transparent) = popul + ist
The meaning 'of or for the people' is recoverable, but the combining form 'popul-' is not a standalone modern English word, so the form–meaning link is not fully obvious to learners.
Etymology
Populist comes from the Latin word populus, which means 'people'. Think of popular, which shares the same root and means 'liked by many'. So a populist is someone who speaks for ordinary 'people' or tries to win their support.