Bolshies

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A colloquial term for members of a faction advocating for revolutionary socialist principles and policies
2. Referencing individuals aligned with the Bolshevik party during the early 20th century in Russia
3. Informally describing those who support radical leftist ideologies and movements centered on anti-capitalist sentiments

Etymology: "Bolshies" is the plural of "bolshie," so it inherits its story from the Russian word "bolshevik," meaning "majority" in the sense of a majority faction. In 1903, at the Second Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, a split produced a faction that won a majority in a key vote, and its members took the name Bolsheviks from the Russian word for "majority." The label was a matter of arithmetic before it was an ideology. That majority faction went on to lead the Russian Revolution of 1917, and its name became attached to the party that seized power, the socialist party that dominated the 1918 Russian Revolution. British and other English speakers borrowed the name as a label for revolutionaries and their sympathisers, and it was then shortened into the colloquial "bolshie," with the English suffix "-ie" added to form the familiar informal adjective.