leftist - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Proto-Indo-European *-id-

Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō)

Ancient Greek -τής (-tḗs)

Middle English -ist

English leftist

From left + -ist.

leftist (plural leftists)

  1. (politics, generally) A person who holds views associated with the political left.
    Synonym: left-winger
    Coordinate terms: centrist, rightist
    • 1976, June Teufel Dreyer, China's Forty Millions: Minority Nationalities and National Integration in the People's Republic of China‎[1], Harvard University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 214:
      The first major clash between the two groups occurred in Shih-ho-tzu on January 26, 1967, with the leftists admitting they had suffered a bloody defeat.
  2. (politics, specifically) Someone who holds socialist or communist-leaning economic views, usually alongside progressive social views; an anticapitalist.

a person who holds views associated with the political left

leftist (comparative more leftist, superlative most leftist)

  1. Of or pertaining to the political left.
    • 2023 November 29 – December 5, Rob Natelson, “Why I Still Doubt the 2020 Election”, in The Epoch Times, U.S. edition, number 488, A, page 17:
      In law school, when we students thought the outcome of a case was determined by a rule we had studied, leftist professors admonished us, “Tools not rules!” In other words, rules control nothing; they’re merely tools you manipulate for the results you want. The fancy word for this kind of amorality is “instrumentalism,” and it subverts the rule of law.

pertaining to the political left

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