Bonapartists

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. Followers or adherents of Napoleon Bonaparte and the French imperial family he founded ; people who support a political claim to power by the Bonaparte line
2. Those who backed Napoleon I or his heirs as rulers of France ; advocates of authoritarian rule modeled on the Napoleonic regime
3. Loyal partisans of the Bonaparte dynasty in France ; supporters of strongman government in the style associated with the Napoleonic era

Etymology: Bonapartists are the supporters of the Bonaparte family, above all of Napoleon I and, after his fall, of his nephew Napoleon III, who wanted a return to Bonapartist rule in France. The plural form simply names the group of people who held these loyalties, so the word's story is really the story of the family name it grows from. The noun is built from "Bonaparte," the surname of the Corsican-born family that rose to power during the French Revolution, plus the suffix "-ist," which in English marks a person who adheres to a doctrine, cause or figure. "Bonapartist" follows the same pattern as words like "Marxist" or "Darwinist," turning a name into a label for a political following. The surname "Bonaparte" itself is the family's own, and the suffix attached to it is what turns a family into a faction.