revisionist, n. and a.
(rɪˈvɪʒənɪst)
[f. revision + -ist. Cf. F. révisionniste adj.]
A. n.
1. One who advocates or supports revision.
| 1865 Reader No. 151. 567/3 The Revisionists and the ultra-Ritualists. 1884 Spectator 4 Oct. 1305/2 The more impatient political revisionists among ourselves should..reflect,—and hesitate. 1909 [see opportunist 1 a]. 1915 L. B. Boudin Theoret. Syst. K. Marx i. 11 What they [sc. critics] claim is that they [sc. Marx's theories] were based on insufficient data, and that our present knowledge requires the revision of some of his tenets or the supplementing of them by some qualifying truths... Hence, the name Revisionists, under which most of the newer Marx-critics are known, and the term Revisionism applied to their writings and teachings. 1927 H. E. Fosdick Pilgrimage to Palestine (1928) xii. 288 Some [Zionists] are revisionists, trying to force Britain's hand and compel aggressive action towards making Jews the dominant political power. 1930 Time & Tide 6 Sept. 1125/2 Professor Barnes is what is known as a ‘revisionist’, in other words, an exponent of historical views on this subject, almost completely reversing those dominant in England and America eleven years ago. 1949 R. K. Merton Social Theory 115 The fallacious premise..found also in the writings of such Freudian revisionists as Fromm, that the structure of society primarily restrains the free expression of man's fixed native impulses. 1957 Observer 27 Oct. 6/2 The purge will be used to root out..the ‘revisionists’ who evince a negative attitude towards the Soviet Union. 1962 Daily Tel. 17 Nov. 16/3 The article is an important move in the Moscow–Peking dispute. It accused the ‘revisionists’ of retreating from the decisions taken jointly in Moscow. 1966 C. Potok Chosen (1967) xiii. 226 Every shade of Zionist thought was represented..from the Revisionists, who supported the Irgun, to the Neturai Karta, the Guardians of the City..Jerusalem. 1973 P. Hollander Soviet & Amer. Society i. 13 The revisionists simply cannot believe that if American foreign policy was wrong (criminal, bankrupt, or irresponsible) in regard to Vietnam, it could have been otherwise in different historical situations, especially if Communism was at issue. 1976 Times 9 June 16/2 It is not easy to strengthen contacts with Yugoslavian communists while keeping Spanish and French ‘revisionists’ at arm's length. |
2. pl. The revisers of the Bible.
| 1881 Q. Rev. Oct. 309 The result at which the Revisionists of the New Testament have arrived. 1885 Ffoulkes Prim. Consecration ii. 16 The Revisionists much more correctly translate [etc.]. |
B. adj. That advocates or supports revision; pertaining to revisionism or revisionists.
| 1866 Church Times 17 Feb., The Revisionist party states its opinion [etc.]. 1888 Times 1 Oct. 5/4 The calling together of a Revisionist Congress. 1903 Social-Democrat VII. 97 Thus, the so-called democratising of industry through the company makes for the Social Revolution, and renders Revisionist Socialism impossible. 1925 Zionist Rev. IX. 48/1 The Radical and the Revisionist Opposition. 1934 Sun (Baltimore) 16 Oct. 10/3 The ‘revisionist’ historian of the war has transferred the responsibility for that great tragedy from the shoulders of the German military autocracy to those of M. Poincaré. 1949 Koestler Promise & Fulfilment ii. 259 A Revisionist doctor makes his living on Revisionist patients, goes to Revisionist cafés and frequents only Revisionist circles. 1961 Listener 30 Nov. 905/2 Much fruitful thinking is now going on within the framework of revisionist Marxism about the kind of relation which exists between basis and superstructure. 1969 Amer. N. & Q. Oct. 31/2 It is ‘revisionist’ history in the finest sense, a wholly new interpretation of the sources. 1971 Human World Nov. 18 In Chinese polemics of the same period, it was discernible that the primary object of Peking's venom was the ‘revisionist social imperialism’ of the ‘new Tsars’. 1974 Times 18 Feb. 7/2 Their local Communist Party committees should carry out reforms aimed at preventing the growth of ‘revisionist’ tendencies. 1977 Time 30 May 4/3 The recent cluster of ‘revisionist’ books on Nazism, which would soften the frightening teachings of this maniacal movement. |