fascist

1921, from Italian fascista, from fascio (“bundle, bunch”), in use metonymically for "group of men organized for political purposes" since 1895. Ultimately with reference to the fasces or bundles of axes and rods carried before the magistrates of ancient Rome in token of their power of life and death.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈfæʃɪst/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• (Philippines) IPA^(key): /ˈfa.sɪst/
• Rhymes: -æʃɪst

fascist (comparative more fascist, superlative most fascist)

1. Of or relating to fascism.
2. Supporting the principles of fascism.
   • 2020 March 2, Henry A. Giroux, “Auschwitz Survivors Don’t Want Their Past to Be Their Grandchildren’s Future”, in Truthout‎^[1]:

     Under demagogues such as Donald Trump in the U.S., Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, Recep Erdoğan in Turkey, Narendra Modi in India and Viktor Orbán in Hungary, a moral abyss has emerged in which state violence, widespread repression and a surge of lawlessness against those considered disposable have become the hallmark of an updated fascist politics.

3. (informal, figurative) Unfairly oppressive or needlessly strict.

   I have a fascist boss.

fascist (plural fascists)

1. A proponent of fascism.

   Mussolini was a fascist well known for his repression of criticism and totalitarian government.

   Fascist? I'm not fascist. You're the fascist!

   • 1998, “If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next”, in This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours, performed by Manic Street Preachers:

     [I]f I can shoot rabbits / Then I can shoot fascists.

   • 2019 October 24, “Franco exhumation: Spanish dictator's remains moved”, in BBC News‎^[2]:

     Thursday's long-awaited relocation fulfils a key pledge of the socialist government, which said Spain should not continue to glorify a fascist who ruled the country for nearly four decades.

It is very common to use fascist in an almost indiscriminate manner for political opponents, via fascism's figurative senses covering any form of bullying or authoritarianism whatsoever. Cf. George Orwell's 1944 “What is Fascism?”: “It will be seen that, as used, the word ‘Fascism’ is almost entirely meaningless. In conversation, of course, it is used even more wildly than in print. I have heard it applied to farmers, shopkeepers, Social Credit, corporal punishment, fox-hunting, bull-fighting, the 1922 Committee, the 1941 Committee, Kipling, Gandhi, Chiang Kai-Shek, homosexuality, Priestley's broadcasts, Youth Hostels, astrology, women, dogs and I do not know what else.”

• fascism

• Nazi, nazi

• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “fascist”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Early 1920s. Borrowed from Italian fascista.

• IPA^(key): /fɑˈsɪst/, /fɑˈʃɪst/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: fas‧cist
• Rhymes: -ɪst

fascist m (plural fascisten, diminutive fascistje n, feminine fasciste)

1. fascist [from 1920s]

• → Indonesian: fasis

Borrowed from Italian fascista or French fasciste.

fascist m or n (feminine singular fascistă, masculine plural fasciști, feminine and neuter plural fasciste)

1. fascist (supporting the principles of fascism)

fascist m (plural fasciști, feminine equivalent fascistă)

1. fascist (“proponent of fascism”)

• faskist (rare)

• IPA^(key): /faˈɧɪsːt/, [fɑʂist]

fascist c

1. fascist

• fascism
• fascistisk

• fascist in Svensk ordbok (SO)