Palin

Part of speech: adverb

Definitions

1. A term used to describe a backwoods or rural person engaged in political life
2. relating to a political figure who is often associated with grassroots movements and populism
3. characterized by a straightforward, often unrefined approach to governance and social issues

Etymology: Sarah Palin, the American politician, is the reason this word is in the news, but it has a much older life as a common English word. The surname "Palin" is an anglicization of the Welsh "ap Heilyn", meaning "son of Heilyn," where "ap" is the Welsh for "son of" and "Heilyn" is a personal name. Welsh surnames of this kind were often reshaped by English speakers, so a name that began as a patronymic gradually became a fixed family name. Because the word is a proper noun, it has no separate sense of its own in dictionaries. The meaning given here, a backwoods or rural person engaged in political life, is a figurative use that grew out of the association with the politician and her public image rather than from anything in the name's origin.

Synonyms: again, back, re-

Antonyms: forward, away