English
agitprop
Agitprop comes from Russian агитпро́п, and goes back to пропага́нды ‘Department for Agitation and Propaganda’.
- Russianmodernпропага́ндыotdél agitácii i propagándy‘Department for Agitation and Propaganda’
- Russian, derivedmodernагитпро́пagitpróp
- Englishearliest quotation 1929agitprop
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Russianmodernпропага́ндыotdél agitácii i propagándy‘Department for Agitation and Propaganda’
- Russian, derivedmodernагитпро́пagitpróp
- Englishearliest quotation 1929agitprop
Earliest quotation: 1929, Harry Wellington Laidler, Norman Thomas: “Anyone who has seen a class struggler at work,…”
A blend of agitation + propaganda
Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ- ‘to drive’
…
Latin agō ‘to act, to behave’
Latin agitō ‘to act, behave, do, or make persistently or…’
Latin agitātiō ‘movement, agitation’
French agitation
English agitation
Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ǵ- ‘to attach, fix, fasten’
Latin prōpāgō ‘propagate’
New Latin prōpāganda
English propaganda
The story
The noun is borrowed from Russian агитпро́п (agitpróp, “agitprop”), Агитпро́п (Agitpróp, “Agitprop (Department for Agitation and Propaganda of the Soviet Union)”), short for отде́л агитации и пропаганды (otdél agitacii i propagandy, “Department for Agitation and Propaganda”); analysable as a blend of agitation + propaganda.
Every English word from Russian пропага́нды
Today it means
noun Political propaganda disseminated through art, drama, literature, etc., especially communist propaganda; (specifically, communism, historical) such propaganda formerly disseminated by the Department for Agitation and Propaganda of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Russian пропага́нды / agitprop