Etymologically
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communism

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 22 October 2026 at 21:24. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈkɒmjᵿnɪz(ə)m/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French communisme,[2][3][4][5] formed on commun (“common”) (from Old French comun, Latin commūnis) and the suffix -isme.[3][6][5] The OED says that the French term was coined in 1840, independently, by the critic Sainte-Beuve, the philosopher Étienne Cabet and the art critic Théophile Thoré,[2] while Klein credits the English socialist Goodwyn Barmby with it in the same year.[7] The political sense of the Marxist movement follows German Kommunismus (itself from French) in Marx and Engels' Communist Manifesto of 1848, translated into English in 1850.[2][3][8] A German Kommunismus of 1794 is an isolated use with no connection to the later word.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A theory that would abolish private property, vesting all of it in the community: 1840, in the New-York Spectator.[2] Merriam-Webster also dates the word to 1840,[5] but Etymonline and Barnhart give 1843.[3][4]

Semantic evolution

At first communism named a theory of society.[3] In 1850, through the translation of the Manifesto, it became the name of the revolutionary Marxist movement that aims to overthrow capitalism,[2][3][8] and in 1918 it became the name of a system of government in which a single party controls economic and social life, as in Soviet Russia.[2][9] Two other senses never took hold: community of feeling (1870), now rare, and the movement of the Paris Commune of 1871.[2] From about 1919 and through the mid-20th century the word was also a general term of abuse for any revolutionary;[3] Etymonline quotes Fowler's remark that socialism, communism and anarchism had become, for comfortable people, the positive, comparative and superlative of a single term of abuse.[3]

Timeline

  • 1840 – the theory of common ownership;[2][5] 1843 in Etymonline and Barnhart.[3][4]
  • 1850 – the revolutionary Marxist movement.[2][3]
  • 1870 – community of feeling (now rare).[2]
  • 1871 – the movement of the Paris Commune.[2]
  • 1918 – one-party state control of the economy.[2]
  • 1919 – a general term of abuse for revolutionaries.[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A theory or system in which property, and especially the means of production, is owned by the community as a whole rather than by individuals.
  2. (often capitalized) The revolutionary political doctrine and movement based on Marxism, which seeks a classless society through the overthrow of capitalism.
  3. A system of government in which one party controls the state and the economy, as in the former Soviet Union.

Word family

  • Eurocommunism
  • procommunism

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press