Brainwashers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Those who subject others to intense indoctrination so that they abandon their original beliefs and adopt new ones imposed upon them
2. People or methods that coerce individuals into accepting a particular ideology through relentless pressure and persuasion
3. Agents who systematically force new convictions onto people, reshaping their thinking through repeated and coercive influence

Etymology: The plural "brainwashers" is simply the plural of "brainwasher," which is "brainwash" with the agent suffix "-er" attached. The suffix comes down through Middle English "-er" from Old French "-ier," which itself descends from Latin "-arius," a suffix used to form nouns for people who carry out or work at something. The verb it attaches to is the older, more concrete word, which was coined in the twentieth century to describe a process of forced ideological conversion. The pairing of a plain English verb with a Latin-derived agent ending is an ordinary way English builds words for people who perform an action.

Synonyms: indoctrinators, propagandists, manipulators