Cromwellian

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Definitions

1. Relating to Othe English statesman Oliver Cromwell, his policies, or the period of his rule ; a person who supported Oliver Cromwell or his Parliamentary cause
2. Connected with the English Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell and the times he governed ; an adherent or follower of Oliver Cromwell during the English Civil War
3. Of or belonging to Oliver Cromwell and the seventeenth-century Commonwealth he led ; someone who sided with Oliver Cromwell and his Parliamentary forces

Etymology: Oliver Cromwell led the Parliamentarian forces in the English Civil War and then ruled England as Lord Protector from 1653 until his death in 1658. The adjective "Cromwellian" is simply his surname with the suffix "-ian", which English uses to form adjectives meaning "of or relating to" a named person or place. It describes things connected with Cromwell himself, or with the period and regime associated with him. Its use is tied to historical periods rather than to a single meaning. Historians speak of the Cromwellian period, the Cromwellian Protectorate, or Cromwellian Ireland, where his campaigns of 1649 and 1650 are remembered for their harshness. The word thus works as a label for an era and its policies, not just for the man.