democratn.
/ˈdɛməkrat/, U.S. /ˈdɛməˌkræt/ 1.
a. An advocate or supporter of democracy or democratic principles; (originally) spec. a republican opponent of the aristocracy in the French Revolution; (more generally) an advocate or supporter of a republican form of government (now historical).See note at democracy n. 1a.
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society > authority > rule or government > politics > political philosophy > principles of or attachment to types of government > [noun] > democratism > adherent of
democratian1651
democratical1651
democratic1659
democrat1788
democratist1790
blackneb1815
demolater1886
demomaniac1886
1788 H. L. Piozzi Diary 20 Nov. in Thraliana (1942) II. 722 We are turning Democrates here wholly from love of the King—I suppose all ye World is to be Democrate or else 'tis very odd to see a Spirit of Loyalty operating to make us all Republicans.
1790 J. Courtenay Philos. Refl. Revol. France 8 The senate of democrats have commenced their impious scheme by abolishing tythes.
1791 E. Gibbon Misc. Wks. (1814) I. 340 Even our democrats are more reasonable or more discreet.
1793 Ann. Reg. 1790 Hist. Europe 118/2 The democrates had already stripped the nobility of all power.
1841 T. Carlyle On Heroes vi. 386 Napoleon, in his first period, was a true Democrat.
1851 A. Helps Compan. Solitude ii. 17 Too affectionate a regard for the people to be a democrat.
1897 Sat. Rev. 83 183/2 The most outrageous and irrespectful democrats in modern Europe.
1934 G. B. Shaw On the Rocks (new ed.) ii, in Too True to be Good 246 I am what none of you has mentioned yet: a democrat. I am just as much against Cabinet dictatorship as individual dictatorship. What I want done is the will of the people.
1978 C. P. Snow Realists iv. 137 He wasn't a democrat, he didn't believe in parliamentary government.
2000 R. D. Putnam Bowling Alone xxii. 351 Fraternity, as the French democrats intended it, was another name for what I term ‘social capital’.
2005 Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) 4 Feb. 20/1 In South Africa many good democrats have become mealy-mouthed on Zimbabwe.
b. With modifying word (and capital initials): an advocate or supporter of a particular form of democracy; esp. a member of a political party advocating democratic political principles of a particular kind.Recorded earliest in social democrat n.Christian, Liberal, New Democrat: see the first element.
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1848 Caledonian Mercury 23 Nov. 1/7 Two democratic banquets were given last night—the one was that of the ‘Social and Democratic Press’, the other of the ‘Female Social Democrats’.
1849 Democratic Rev. June 23 This merciless war induced the Socialist Democrats to resolve to suspend all agitation in the shape of electoral assemblies.
1880 Aberdeen Weekly Jrnl. 26 July 5/3 A party to support him has been formed, the members of which call themselves National Democrats.
1922 New Internat. Year Bk. 1921 631/2 The [Romanian] parliament at the beginning of 1921 was distributed among the various political groups as follows: Peoples Party, 215; Federal Democrats, 34; Bessarabian Peasants, 25 [etc.].
1958 Irish Times 17 May 1/4 A new political party to be known as the National Progressive Democrats.
2008 S. Hanley New Right in New Europe 139 Support for both the Social Democrats and the Civic Democrats rose.
2. U.S. Politics. Usually with capital initial. A member or supporter of the Democratic Party (see Democratic Party n. at democratic adj. and n. Compounds).Quot. 1794 shows a graphic abbreviation of Democrat: see Demo n.1Blue Dog, New, Reagan, reform Democrat: see the first element.
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society > authority > rule or government > politics > American politics > [noun] > Democratic Party > member or adherent of
Demo1794
wool hat1794
democrat1798
Dem1806
1794 W. B. Grove Let. 2 Apr. in Papers of John Steele (1924) I. 108 Mr. Smiley—a man who was very Popular in the State assembly, he is a great Demo. and taulks tolerable well.]
1798 G. Washington Let. 30 Sept. in Papers (1999) Retirement Ser. III. 59 You could as soon as scrub the blackamore white, as to change the principles of a profest Democrat.
1809 E. A. Kendall Trav. Northern Parts U.S. III. lx. 5 A democrat is an anti-federalist.
1847 H. Clay Private Corr. 544 He must say whether he is Whig or Democrat.
1888 J. Bryce Amer. Commonw. II. liii. 333 One of these two parties carried on, under the name of Democrats, the dogmas and traditions of the Jeffersonian Republicans.
1922 S. Anderson Winesburg Ohio 25 I was a Democrat here in Winesburg when it was a crime to be a Democrat. In the old days they fairly hunted us with guns.
1969 Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin) 15 Sept. 3/1 The Democrats must come up with a candidate who has a strong anti-war record and must be prominently identified with the environment issue.
2011 Independent 17 Aug. (Viewspaper section) 5/4 Republicans have been driven ever rightward and Democrats leftward.
3. North American. Short for democrat wagon n. at Compounds 2. Now chiefly historical.
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society > travel > means of travel > a conveyance > vehicle > cart, carriage, or wagon > cart or wagon for conveying goods > [noun]
chariotc1380
team1641
democrat1873
1873 Trans. Dept. Agric. State Illinois 1872 10 65 Landing at the depot about midnight, they were conveyed in a ‘Democrat’ at break-neck speed to the Railroad House.
1890 S. J. Duncan Social Departure 26 The vehicle was, in the language of the country, a ‘democrat’, a high four-wheeled cart, painted and varnished, with double seats, one behind the other.
1936 B. Brooker Think of Earth ii. iii. 137 There were buggies and democrats drawn up at the stores.
2003 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 25 Sept. 33/3 And they came in buggies and buckboards and democrats and surreys and barouches and cut-unders.
Compounds
C1. General attributive.
a. In sense 1a. Cf. democratic adj. 1a. Now rare.
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society > authority > rule or government > a or the system of government > government by the people or their delegates > [adjective]
democratic1569
democratian1574
democratical1574
direct1629
democrat1794
democratized1797
democratizing1797
liberal democratic1868
1794 J. B. S. Morritt Let. 27 Feb. (1914) i. 5 Tell Frances this is not democrat intelligence, but the general cry of them all.
1800 J. Alexander Acct. Late Rebellion Kildare ii. 34 How much farther would these denunciations have been realized, had our military visitors been the democrat French!
1817 S. T. Coleridge Biographia Literaria I. x. 186 He..talked of purpose in a democrat way in order to draw me out.
1846 Blackwood's Mag. 59 405 The..recklessness, and insatiability of the democrat spirit.
1981 Voice 29 July 3 The Azanian Students Association (Azaso), officially switched from the Black consciousness philosophy to that of non-racial ‘progressive and democrat’ stance, at the weekend.
b. U.S. Politics. In sense 2. Cf. democratic adj. 2.In later use sometimes employed by supporters of the Republican Party as a deliberate alternative to Democratic: see quot. 1985.
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1836 N.-Y. Spectator 18 Apr. 1/1 You may call him the child of the democrat party.
1886 Sun (Baltimore) 28 Oct. (Suppl.) That firmly settled principle of ‘senatorial courtesy’, upon which both republican and democrat senators hang so closely together.
1946 National Geographic Mag. July 3/1 In that year, however, the Democrat and Greenback parties joined to form the Fusionists and succeeded in getting some candidates into office.
1985 Chicago Tribune 20 Oct. 8 ‘Our opportunity is the perceived disarray in the Democrat party both national and local,’ Totten says... Totten has the annoying Republican habit of saying ‘Democrat’ instead of ‘Democratic’ when talking about the opposition.
2009 Private Eye 18 Sept. 12/3 The ‘Blue Dog’ group of right-wing Democrat senators.
C2.
democrat wagon n. North American (now chiefly historical) a light, open-topped wagon with two or more seats, usually drawn by two horses and typically for use on a farm or ranch; cf. sense 3, earlier democratic wagon n. at democratic adj. and n. Compounds.
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1852 Trans. N.Y. State Agric. Soc. 1851 11 124 One democrat wagon, Soules & West, Trans.
1894 Auctioneer's Catal. New York Democrat Wagon in good order.
a1910 ‘M. Twain’ Autobiography (1925) II. 106 A democrat wagon stood outside the main gate with my trunk in it.
1994 Canad. Living May 77/1 Rancher John Scott rolls a refurbished 19th century Rocky Mountain Democrat wagon onto a flatbed.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1788