[Ads-l] Adjectival or Attributive Use of "Democrat" Not in OED

[Shapiro, Fred]

I notice that a pretty significant U.S. political usage is missing from OED, namely the adjectival or attributive use of "Democrat," as in "Democrat Party."  I believe that this has been a semi-standard word-use among Republicans, presumably because back when they thought democracy was a good thing they didn't want the enemy party to be associated with the good-sounding word "democratic."  William Safire, in Safire's Political Dictionary, regarded "Democrat Party" as having been launched in 1955.  When I do database searches, it seems that "Democrat Party" was common well before 1955.

Fred Shapiro

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