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

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Thanks Fred, JL, and Ben.
Barry Popik also has a long and helpful entry on the topic from November 2010.
Democrat Party or Democratic Party (usage)
https://barrypopik.com/blog/democrat_party_or_democratic_party_usage

Garson

On Tue, Nov 11, 2025 at 11:11 PM Ben Zimmer
<00001aae0710f4b7-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
>
> In a 1984 column, Safire quoted Harold Stassen, who took credit for Wendell
> Willkie's 1940 presidential campaign adopting the "Democrat Party" usage.
>
> https://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/28/magazine/on-language-banned-words.html
>
> Geoff Nunberg noted in a 2004 Language Log post that it's now easy to find
> antedatings, including Hoover's use in the 1932 campaign.
>
> http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001565.html
>
> Geoff gave pejorative examples back to 1923, adding, "The phrase occurs
> before then, but it seems to have been regarded more as a rusticism than as
> a partisan dig."
>
> JL last discussed the usage in these parts in Feb. 2021.
>
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2021-February/159290.html
>
> --bgz
>
> On Tue, Nov 11, 2025 at 10:05 PM Jonathan Lighter <
> 00001aad181a2549-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
>
> > 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
> > >
> >
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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