autogolpe

[ aw-toh-gawl-pey ]

noun

, Spanish.

1. self-coup:

   One of the justifications he made for his autogolpe in 1992 was his indictment of the corruption within the judiciary.

Word History and Origins

Origin of autogolpe¹

First recorded in 1970–75; from Spanish auto- auto- ¹( def ) + golpe “a hit” (from Latin colaphus, from Greek kólaphos ); coup ¹( def )