babouvist means A supporter or follower of François-Noël Babeuf or his ideas, including universal equal income and the abolition of private property. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
babouvist is pronounced /bəˈbuːvɪst/.
Why “babouvist” is a great word
BABOUVIST — [Noun] A supporter of François-Noël Babeuf or his egalitarian doctrine advocating for universal equal income and the abolition of private property. From French babouviste, from the surname Babeuf + the French suffix -iste ("-ist"). First attested in English around 1800. Unlike a "Jacobin," focused on republican virtue and centralized power, or a "Marxist," armed with systematic historical materialism, a Babouvist was a conspirator in the shadows, plotting an immediate, total overthrow for a perfect commune. One pictures the ink-stained fingers copying a clandestine broadsheet by candlelight, the furtive handshake in a Parisian alley still smelling of revolution and sewage, the feverish oath sworn in a locked room on the eve of the guillotine’s silence—a testament to the stark, impractical dream that equality must be total, or it is nothing.
Etymology
From French babouviste, corresponding to Babeuf + -ist.
noun
- A supporter or follower of François-Noël Babeuf or his ideas, including universal equal income and the abolition of private property.“At the end of the month, Merlin ordered the disbanding of the Police Legion, which had been infiltrated by the Babouvists.”