(usually initial capital letter) a member of an Italian association that became prominent in 1878, advocating the redemption, or the incorporation into Italy, of certain neighboring regions Italia irredenta having a primarily Italian population.
a member of a party in any country advocating the acquisition of some region included in another country by reason of cultural, historical, ethnic, racial, or other ties.
First recorded in 1880–85; from Italian irredentista, equivalent to (Italia) irredent(a) “(Italy) unredeemed” (feminine of irredento, equivalent to ir- ir- 2 + redento, from Latin redemptus; see redemption) + -ista -ist
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Instead, Mr. Putin spent much of the interview subjecting a baffled Mr. Carlson to an irredentist teach-in on 1,000 years of Eastern European history, leaving the former Fox News host, by his own admission, “shocked.”
From New York Times ● Feb. 9, 2024
But if irredentist resentment lurked, alongside a Soviet spy’s suspicion of the U.S.,
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 26, 2022
It always sounds more attractive to third parties than to the country whose territory the irredentist covets.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 14, 2021
Andrei Znamenski, a history professor at the University of Memphis, said that irredentist calls to reclaim Alaska were not limited to extremists.
From New York Times ● Mar. 30, 2017
Once more Bulgaria had entered a war on the losing side, and once more its irredentist ambitions had resulted in no territorial gains.
From Area Handbook for Bulgaria by Violeta D. Baluyut
The astute Ludendorff as military leader and the Irredentist Hitler as political leader of an intransigent Bavaria, threatened the right flank of any possible French " march to Berlin."
From Time Magazine Archive
The Irredentist propaganda naturally increased the rancor which Austria felt toward the Italians over whom she had recently despotized.
From The New York Times Current History, A Monthly Magazine The European War, March 1915 by Various
After his marriage with the countess Elena Sizzo of Trent, he permitted the Irredentist agitation to carry the country to the verge of a war with Austria.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 "Bulgaria" to "Calgary" by Various
And when the chairman announced that the next speaker was to be the Italian Irredentist deputy, Signer Conci, another storm of applause and cries of "Eviva!" burst out.
From Independent Bohemia An Account of the Czecho-Slovak Struggle for Liberty by Vladimír Nosek
A stable condition of accord between Austria and Italy, he said, could be effected only by satisfaction of the old Irredentist formula, "Trent and Trieste."
From The Story of the Great War, Volume V (of 12) Neuve Chapelle, Battle of Ypres, Przemysl, Mazurian Lakes by Allen L. (Allen Leon) Churchill
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
