fanatic
/fəˈnatɪk
/noun
1A person filled with excessive and single-minded zeal, especially for an extreme religious or political cause: religious fanatics...
- Much to the chagrin of my room-mates, come election time I will roam around extolling the necessity of voting with the zeal of a religious fanatic.
- The extreme right wing religious fanatics truly scare me beyond belief.
- Wesley's eyes glint with a religious fanatic's zeal.
Synonyms
zealot, extremist, militant, dogmatist, devotee, sectarian, bigot, chauvinist, partisan, radical, diehard, ultra, activist, apologist, adherent;
visionary
informal maniac, crank, freak
US informal wackadoo, wackadoodle
1.1 informal A person with an obsessive interest in and enthusiasm for a particular activity: a fitness fanatic...
- Andy, whose first column begins today, says you don't need to become a fitness fanatic to reap the benefits of better health.
- Owned by sports fanatic Paul Allen, ‘Sporting News’ caters to the passionate fan.
- ‘Cinderella Man’ was written by New York lawyer and boxing fanatic Michael DeLise.
Synonyms
enthusiast, fan, devotee, lover, addict
informal nut, maniac, fiend, freak, junkie, bug, crank, buff, -head, a great one for
North American informal geek, jock
adjective
Filled with or expressing excessive zeal: his eyes had a fanatic iciness...
- But at all times, a clear distinction must be held between Muslims and fanatic nihilists, for the former desire the furtherment of society, while the latter do not believe in society at all.
- By razing the Babri masjid to the ground first and then doing ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Gujarat, fanatic Hindus have brought the genie of Hindutva out of the bottle.
- Something which has started in Chechnya during the first war was already pointing in the direction of fanatic fundamentalist, global Islamist resistance.
Derivatives
fanaticize
/ (also fanaticise) verb ...- As the nation ate breakfast on Sunday, its emotions ran the gamut from vengeful anger to violent jubilation, from one extreme to the other of the fanaticized political spectrum.
- Faced with fanaticized masses, the modern world has long clung to the view that it was dealing with the peculiarities of backward societies.
- Secret clubs of Rome, especially the "Circolo Romano", under the direction of Ciceruacchio, fanaticized the mob with their radicalism and were the real rulers of Rome.
Origin
Mid 16th century (as an adjective): from French fanatique or Latin fanaticus 'of a temple, inspired by a god', from fanum 'temple'. The adjective originally described behaviour that might result from possession by a god or demon, hence the earliest sense of the noun 'a religious maniac' (mid 17th century).