different between ideology vs moonbat

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French idéologie, from idéo- +? -logie (equivalent to English ideo- +? -logy). Coined 1796 by Antoine Destutt de Tracy. Modern sense of “doctrine” attributed to use of related idéologue (“ideologue”) by Napoleon Bonaparte as a term of abuse towards political opponents in early 1800s.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /a?.di.??l.?.d??i/, /?.di.??l.?.d??i/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?a?.di???l.?.d??i?/

Noun

ideology (countable and uncountable, plural ideologies)

1. Doctrine, philosophy, body of beliefs or principles belonging to an individual or group.
2. (uncountable) The study of the origin and nature of ideas.

Usage notes

Original meaning “study of ideas” (following the etymology), today primarily used to mean “doctrine”. For example “communist ideology” generally refers to “communist doctrine”; study of communist ideas instead being “communist philosophy”, or more clearly “philosophy of communism”; only rarely “ideology of communism”.

Derived terms

Translations

References

Further reading

• "ideology" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 153.
• ideology in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• ideology in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• eidology

English

Etymology

From moon +? bat, first used in the 1940s by the science-fiction writer Robert Heinlein, then used in the term “barking moonbat” coined in 1999 by Perry de Havilland of “The Libertarian Samizdata”, a right-libertarian weblog. This originally referred to both left-wing and right-wing crazy people. Sometimes wrongly claimed to be a corruption of Monbiot (from George Monbiot, British environmentalist and Guardian columnist).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?mu?n?bæt/

Noun

moonbat (plural moonbats)

1. (informal, derogatory) A liberal (someone with a left-wing ideology).

   Synonyms: (derogatory) leftard, (derogatory) libtard

   Coordinate term: wing nut

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:moonbat.

Derived terms

• moonbattery
• moonbatty

Further reading

• The Samizdata glossary

References