Levelers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Individuals who act to make surfaces even or flat ; supporters of a 17th-century English political group seeking equal rights and social reforms
2. Those who flatten or smooth out uneven areas ; advocates involved in a revolutionary movement during the English Civil War promoting social equality
3. Persons engaged in evening out or leveling ground or objects ; followers of a radical faction in English history aiming to reform government and society

Etymology: The Levellers were a radical political movement during the English Civil War, and their name came from a plain tool. "Level" entered English from Old French "livel," which traces back through Latin "libella," a diminutive of "libra," meaning a balance or scale. A level was the instrument that showed whether a surface was truly horizontal, so the idea of making things even was built into the word long before anyone applied it to society. The suffix "-er" is the English agent ending, descended from Old English "-ere," which attached to a verb or noun to name a person or thing that performs an action. Put together, "leveler" meant one who makes things level, first in the literal sense of flattening ground or smoothing surfaces. In the 1640s, the political sense arose, applied to the group that campaigned for a more equal distribution of political power and, in some cases, property.

Synonyms: equalizers, balancers, regulators

Antonyms: differentiators, unevenness, instigators