Babouvistn.adj.
/bəˈbuːvɪst/, U.S. /ˌbɑˈbuvəst/ Politics.
A. n.
A follower or supporter of Babeuf or his beliefs, most notably the doctrine of universal equality of income and the abolition of private property; spec. a member of any of various 19th-cent. French political organizations espousing this principle.
ΚΠ
1800 tr. L. S. Mercier New Picture Paris I. liii. 217 If the shades of these great men,..could rise from the tombs which cover them, and see such interpreters, they would say, Why have we written to have Babouvistes for commentators?
1836 J. B. O'Brien tr. P. Buonarotti Hist. Babeuf's Conspiracy II. 235 The upper and affluent classes..uttered howls of death against the ‘Babouvists’.
1910 Encycl. Brit. X. 858/2 The secret society of the Babouvists,..with which Barras was secretly in league.
1990 Independent on Sunday 28 Jan. 19/3 The Babouvists, who saw that the 1789 revolution had only pitched one sort of property owner against another, were among the ancestors of socialism.
2008 T. Fleming Socialism ii. 31 Since the cultivation of arts and sciences was also a source of inequality, the Babouvists opposed all higher education that created social distinctions.
B. adj.
Of, relating to, or characteristic of Babeuf, the Babouvists, or their beliefs.
ΚΠ
1850 Social Utopias 14 in Chambers's Papers for People III. No social changes were seriously projected until the Babouvist agitation and conspiracy of 1796.
1910 Encycl. Brit. X. 859/1 The constitutional party..had made alarming progress, chiefly owing to the Babouvist conspiracy.
1960 20th Cent. July 17 Tkachev's ‘Jacobin’ (better called ‘Babouvist’ or ‘Blanquist’) influence.
1978 Dædalus Summer 9 Marx was very reluctant to accept the Babouvist égalité réelle.
2002 A. Goldhammer tr. P. L. R. Higonnet Paris iii. 57 In the end the Babouvist conspiracy failed..and Babeuf..was guillotined.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2011; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.adj.1800