conspiracy = "a theory of conspiracy"

[Ben Zimmer]

On Sat, Apr 27, 2013 at 12:20 AM, Geoffrey Nunberg wrote:
>
> A related -- and surprisingly widespread --  usage is "conspirators" for
> "those who believe in a conspiracy," the connection to "conspire"
> evidently having been eclipsed.  A search on "birther" and
> "conspirators" turns up numerous hits like these:
>
> Obama gives big middle finger to birther conspirators.
[...]
> Substituting "truther" etc. turns up the same sort of thing.

And then there are adjectival and adverbial forms. Looking back on my
own usage, I see I've referred to "the conspiratorial '-er' ending":

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0912A&L=ADS-L&P=R1931&I=-3

I think I'm on slightly safer ground referring to the "conspiratorially minded":

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/14/nyregion/14nyc.html

Or better yet, "conspiracy-minded types" (though I suppose I really
mean "conspiracy-theory-minded types"):

http://www.boston.com/2012/12/28/word/n5P4CeiU4Hj7QBO9k3SygN/story.html

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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