(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
First, irredentist claims tend to be difficult to understand, let alone adjudicate.
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
Nevertheless, the leaders of robber bands and members of the terrible irredentist organisations were not regarded by the public as wild robbers, but as heroes fighting for the unity of the nation.
From Turkey: a Past and a Future by Toynbee, Arnold Joseph
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
She had been barred in her western movement by the rise of the Irredentist party in Italy, and consequently had to withdraw behind the frontiers of Carinthia, Carniola, and Istria.
From The Lady of the Shroud by Stoker, Bram
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 Nosek, Vladimír
Irredentist, ir-e-den′tist, n. one of an Italian party formed in 1878, its aim to incorporate into Italy all Italian people politically belonging to other countries, as in the Tyrol, Nice, &c.—n.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various
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
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.
