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

[Jonathan Lighter]

A search of Newspapers.com revealed to me some years back that "Democrat
Party" was interchangeable with "Democratic..." during much of the 19th
century, even among Democrats.

ISTR too that Republicans reinvented the usage as a pejorative as long ago
as the 1930s or '40s.  I don;t believe I've ever heard an acknowledged
Republican say "Democratic Party" in decades, if ever.

I thought I had posted this info, but if so I can't find it.

"Demonrat Party" is, of course, always pejorative.  It has replaced the
milder "Dummycrats."

JL

On Tue, Nov 11, 2025 at 8:59 PM Shapiro, Fred <
00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> 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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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