| 释义 |
▪ I. demagogue, n.|ˈdɛməgɒg|
[mod. ad. Gr. δηµαγωγ-ός a popular leader, a leader of the mob, f. δῆµος people, populace, the commons + ἀγωγός leading, leader.
In French, demagoge was used by Oresme in 14th c.; but in the 17th Bossuet wished that it were permissible to employ the word. Démagogue was not admitted by the Academy till 1762.]
1. In ancient times, a leader of the people; a popular leader or orator who espoused the cause of the people against any other party in the state.
1651Hobbes Govt. & Soc. x. §6. 153 In a Democraty, look how many Demagoges (that is) how many powerfull Oratours there are with the people. 1683Dryden Life Plutarch 99 Their warriours, and senators, and demagogues. 1719Swift To Yng. Clergyman, Demosthenes and Cicero, though each of them a leader (or as the Greeks called it, a demagogue) in a popular state, yet seem to differ. 1832tr. Sismondi's Ital. Rep. x. 224 He was descended from one of the demagogues who, in 1378, had undertaken the defence of the minor arts against the aristocracy. 1874Green Short Hist. viii. §6. 520 He [Pym] proved himself..the grandest of demagogues.
2. In bad sense: A leader of a popular faction, or of the mob; a political agitator who appeals to the passions and prejudices of the mob in order to obtain power or further his own interests; an unprincipled or factious popular orator.
1648Eikon Bas. iv, Who were the chief demagogues and patrons of tumults, to send for them, to flatter and embolden them. 1649Milton Eikon. iv. (1851) 365 Setting aside the affrightment of this Goblin word [demagogue]; for the King by his leave cannot coine English as he could mony, to be current..those Demagogues..saving his Greek, were good patriots. a1716South Serm. II. 333 (T.) A plausible, insignificant word, in the mouth of an expert demagogue, is a dangerous and a dreadful weapon. 1835Lytton Rienzi i. viii, I do not play the part of a mere demagogue. 1848Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 243 He despised the mean arts and unreasonable clamours of demagogues.
3. attrib. and Comb.
1812Southey in Q. Rev. VIII. 349 The venom and virulence of the demagogue journalists. 1878Lecky Eng. in 18th C. (1883) III. 61 He stooped to no demagogue art. 1887Brit. Mercantile Gaz. 15 June 29/1 The overheated demagogue-fired imagination of the masses.
▪ II. ˈdemagogue, v. Chiefly U.S.
[f. prec.]
1. intr. To play the demagogue.
1656Harrington Oceana 143 When that same ranting fellow Alcibiades fell a demagoging for the Sicilian War. 1850Congress. Globe 24 July App. 940 In Ohio, the master-spirits of the party, while demagoging upon the stump, have promised the people [etc.]. 1867Ibid. 16 Mar. 146/1 There was a great temptation presented to members of the Republican party now to demagogue. 1876Congress. Rec. 1 July 4338/1, I have not been one of those..trying to cut down a few dollars for the purpose of demagoguing before the county.
2. trans. To deal with (a matter) after the fashion of a demagogue.
1890Cincinnati Commercial Gaz. 31 July, The President never thought of demagoging the matter by..spurning the goodly gift. 1897Congress. Rec. 20 Feb. 2041/2 Here is a plain, common-sense question, not to be demogogued in any way. |