stakhanovite
/stəˈkɑːnəvaɪt/
stakhanovite means pertaining to a Stakhanovite; heroically hardworking. It carries an Arena rating of 1304, earned across 8 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, stakhanovite ranks #773 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words, #2,108 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words, #2,962 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #3,152 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words.
stakhanovite is pronounced /stəˈkɑːnəvaɪt/.
Why “stakhanovite” is a great word
Pertaining to or characteristic of an exceptionally productive worker, especially one in the former USSR who exceeded state-mandated production quotas and was held up as a model for socialist labor. From the surname Stakhanov (of Russian coal miner Alexei Grigoryevich Stakhanov) + the suffix -ite (forming nouns denoting followers or types). The term was coined in 1935 as part of a Soviet propaganda campaign. Unlike a workaholic, driven by personal compulsion, or an overachiever, who surpasses general expectations, the Stakhanovite was a political artifact, a human instrument of ideological theater. It is the staged photograph of a solitary miner posed before a monstrous heap of coal, the hollow echo of factory applause for a record fabricated by an entire team, and the grim exhaustion behind a medal pinned to a grease-stained tunic—the spectacle of individual triumph consumed by the engine of the collective.
Etymology
From Stakhanov + -ite, named after Russian coal miner Alexei Grigoryevich Stakhanov (Aleksei Grigor’evich Stakhanov) whose prodigious output was publicised by Stalin as part of a campaign in 1935.
adj
- Pertaining to a Stakhanovite; heroically hardworking.
noun
- An extremely productive or hardworking worker, especially in the former USSR, who may earn special rewards; a workaholic.e.g.“Nevertheless, few outstanding Stakhanovites remained at the bench for very long. Even if they stayed on the enterprise payroll, they ceased to be workers, becoming instead living icons.” — 1990, Lewis H. Siegelbaum, Stakhanovism and the Politics of Productivity in the USSR, 1935–1941, page 183:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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