patriotism
Patriotism is attachment to one's country and readiness to act for its welfare, covering civic care in peacetime as well as defence when threatened.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Definitions
- Feeling and stance of loyalty toward one's own country, its people and institutions, joined with care for their durability and growth.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - In public debate: a model of civic commitment that need not claim superiority of one's nation over others and is often set against ideological nationalism.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - As a critical label: showy rhetoric of love of country used to shut down argument or to dress group interests as the common good.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
Examples
- In the speech they stressed that patriotism also shows in honest work and respect for the law, not only in ceremonial pledges.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - The historian described the rebels' patriotism as a readiness to sacrifice for independence despite the enemy's military advantage.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - In the essay she separated civic patriotism from nationalism that demands exclusivity against other communities.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - The critic charged the campaign with cheap patriotism, because slogans about the homeland replaced a concrete economic programme.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
Usage
In everyday English patriotism usually names love of country and a readiness to defend it. In journalism and social science the range is wider: loyalty to state institutions, care for shared goods, and rituals of historical memory. A careful writer says whether the topic is a personal moral stance, a political programme, or a pejorative charge of empty rhetoric. Skip that distinction and description turns into ideological judgment.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Webster (1913) defines Patriotism as love of country and devotion to one's country's welfare, and Patriot as one who loves his country and zealously supports its authority. Nearby lemmas are Patriotic and Patriotical. Skeat under PATRIOT links the English word to OF. patriote and Late L. patriota, then to Gk. πατριώτης 'fellow-countryman' from πάτριος and πατήρ 'father'. He lists derivatives patriotic, patriotism and compatriot, and notes that the modern sense of patriot developed in French. That supplies the English and Greco-Latin branch of the family.
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Editorial team; facts: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913; W. W. Skeat, An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, 1910, open sourceFrequent pairings are local patriotism, economic patriotism, patriotic education, upbringing in patriotism and declarations of patriotism. A person with that stance is a patriot; the adjective is patriotic. Op-eds and essays often return to the pair patriotism versus nationalism: the second pole then marks a programme of national exclusivity, while the first names loyalty to the country alone. The borders of both labels partly blur and depend on the speaker's context.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Arct's 1921 foreign-word dictionary glosses Polish Patrjotyzm as love of the fatherland and warm attachment to the native land. Beside it stand Patrjota (a citizen who loves the fatherland and is ready for sacrifice), Patriotyczny (concerning patriotism, grounded in love of the native country) and scornful Patrjotnik. The family was already current; spelling with j reflects that edition's orthography. We treat Arct only as lexical evidence and rephrase the idea in our own words, never as a copied gloss for this site.
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Editorial team; facts: M. Arct, Slownik wyrazow obcych, 9th ed., Warsaw 1921, open sourceWord forms
Regular English noun, usually uncountable; the plural patriotisms is used for different strands or national versions of the stance.
word forms
| przypadek | forma |
|---|---|
| singular | patriotism |
| plural | patriotisms |
Word forms: Editorial team
Collocations
- local patriotism
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - economic patriotism
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - patriotic education
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - civic patriotism
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - declarations of patriotism
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
Synonyms · Antonyms
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Etymology
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W. W. Skeat, An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed., Oxford 1910, open sourcealso
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913, open sourcealso
M. Arct, Slownik wyrazow obcych, 9th ed., Warsaw 1921, open sourceRelated words
- patriot , noun for a person with that stance (Webster 1913; Skeat)
- patriotic , adjective in the same word family (Skeat Der.; Webster)
- compatriot , noun: fellow-countryman (Skeat Der. under PATRIOT)
- expatriate , related form noted by Skeat under the same root
- nationalism , thematically related noun often contrasted in debate
Related entries
Questions and answers
What does patriotism mean?
Speakers use the term for loyalty toward a homeland and willingness to work for its good: from honest work and respect for the law to defence of independence. In debate it can also name a civic model set against nationalism, or a pejorative charge of empty, showy rhetoric.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Where does the word patriotism come from?
The Greek base πατριώτης (fellow-countryman) passed through Late Latin and French patriote into English. Skeat maps that path under PATRIOT and adds the derivative patriotism; Webster 1913 prints Patriotism as love of country. Arct 1921 notes Polish Patrjotyzm as love of the fatherland.
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W. W. Skeat, An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed., Oxford 1910, open sourceHow is patriotism different from nationalism?
Patriotism usually names attachment to a country and a will to defend it, without a requirement of superiority over other communities. Nationalism more often names an ideology or organised movement around the nation, sometimes with demands of exclusivity. The two labels partly overlap, so a sharp contrast depends on the specific text.