Communists

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A faction promoting the elimination of class disparities by advocating shared ownership of resources and collective governance
2. Individuals affiliated with a political ideology aiming for a classless society through the communal control of assets and economy
3. People who follow or support a political theory that calls for communal ownership and equal distribution of resources

Etymology: The word looks like a simple noun, but its first coiners were a group of French-speaking Italians in Paris who had a specific political programme in mind. The base is "commun", meaning "common" or "communal", which comes from Latin "communis", while the ending "-iste" is the familiar suffix that marks a follower or adherent of a doctrine. Put together, a communist is someone who adheres to the idea of common ownership. The suffix itself came into French from Latin "-ista" and Greek "-istes", a pattern that makes many political labels, from "royalist" to "socialist", which share the same ending. The word therefore slots neatly into a family of "-ist" nouns, and the plural "communists" simply names more than one adherent of that doctrine.

Synonyms: socialists, revolutionaries, Marxists, leftists, radicals

Antonyms: capitalists, liberals, conservatives, reactionaries, anti-communists