Populist

How to spell populist

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce populist

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does populist mean?

1. nounA politician or campaigner who claims to represent ordinary people against a privileged or out-of-touch elite.
2. adjectiveRelating to or characteristic of political appeals aimed at ordinary people against established elites.

Populist in a sentence

• noun

  The rally drew a fiery populist who promised to drain the establishment.

• adjective

  The party adopted a populist tone, blaming distant bureaucrats for local hardship.

• noun

  As a populist, he framed every policy as the common worker against the wealthy few.

• adjective

  Her populist message about lower taxes resonated in the struggling factory towns.

Where does populist come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word grows directly from the Latin populus, meaning simply 'the people' or 'the public', the same root that gives us 'popular', 'population', and 'public'. English already had 'popular' for centuries, but 'populist' itself is a relatively modern coinage, appearing in the United States in the early 1890s. It was minted to describe members of the People's Party, a farmer-led political movement whose Latin-flavoured nickname was the Populist Party, championing ordinary working people against banking and railway elites. From that specific party label it broadened into a general term for any politics that claims to speak for the common people against a privileged establishment. The single 'l' and the '-ist' ending both trace cleanly back to popul- plus -ist, so remembering the link to 'popular' and 'population' keeps the spelling on track.

How the word is built

• popul- (from Latin populus: the people)
• -ist (one who advocates or belongs to)