demagogue

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

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🗓️ 30 April 2024

⏱️ 2 minutes

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Summary

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 30, 2024 is:

demagogue • \DEM-uh-gahg\ • noun

A demagogue is a political leader who tries to get support by making use of popular prejudices, as well as by making false claims and promises and using arguments based on emotion rather than reason.

// His opponent called him a bigoted demagogue for demonizing those who don't intend to vote for him.

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Examples:

“You need an internal guidance system for making decisions. Without one, your choices become heavily influenced by external forces such as peers, television, and demagogues.” — Tom Muha, The Capital (Annapolis, Maryland), 2 Oct. 2021

Did you know?

When the ancient Greeks used dēmagōgós (from dêmos, meaning “people,” and -agōgos, “leading”) they meant someone good—a leader who used outstanding oratorical skills to further the interests of the common people. The first known use of demagogue in English comes from the introduction to Thomas Hobbes’s 1629 translation of a text by the ancient Greek historian Thucydides: “It need not be doubted, but from such a master Thucydides was sufficiently qualified, to have become a great demagogue, and of great authority with the people.” Alas, the word quickly took a negative turn; within decades it was being used to refer to someone who uses powers of persuasion to sway and mislead.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Merriam-Webster's word of the day for April 30th.
0:07.0	Today's word is
0:12.0	Today's word is demagogue spelled D-E-M-A-G-O-G-U-E.
0:17.0	Demagogue is a noun. A demagogue is a political leader who tries to get support by making use of popular prejudices, as well as by making
0:26.0	false claims and promises and using arguments based on emotion rather than reason.
0:32.1	Here's the word used in a sentence from the capital of Annapolis
0:35.1	by Tom Muha. You need an internal guidance system for making decisions. Without
0:40.7	one your choices become heavily influenced by external forces such as peers, television, and demagogues.
0:48.0	When the ancient Greeks use the word demagogos from Demos meaning people and agogos meaning leading
0:55.5	they meant someone good a leader who used outstanding oratorical skills to further the
1:01.7	interests of the common people.
1:04.0	The first known use of demagogue in English comes from the introduction to Thomas Hobbs's
1:09.0	1629 translation of a text by ancient Greek historian Thucydides. It need not be doubted, but from
1:17.0	such a master Thucydides was sufficiently qualified to have become a great demagogue and of great authority with the people.
1:25.0	Alas, the word quickly took a negative turn.
1:29.0	Within decades, it was being used to refer to someone who uses powers of persuasion to sway and
1:35.1	mislead. With your word of the day I'm Peter Sokolowski.
1:40.3	Visit Marion Webster.
1:43.4	Webster.com today for definitions, word play, and trending word lookups.

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