definitions

samizdat

[ sah-miz-daht; Russian suh-myiz-daht ]
/ ˈsɑ mɪzˌdɑt; Russian sə myɪzˈdɑt /
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noun

a clandestine publishing system within the Soviet Union, by which forbidden or unpublishable literature was reproduced and circulated privately.
a work or periodical circulated by this system.

Nearby words

samian ware, samiel, samisen, samite, samiti, samizdat, samkhya, saml., samlet, sammarinese, sammartini

Origin of samizdat

1965–70; < Russian samizdát, equivalent to sam(o)- self- + izdát(el'stvo) publishing agency; coined as a jocular allusion to the compound names of official Soviet publishing organs, e.g., Gosizdát for Gosudárstvennoe izdátel'stvo State Publishing House
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for samizdat

  • The bigger the market – the more pressure is applied to clamp down on the samizdat entrepreneurs.

    After the Rain|Sam Vaknin

British Dictionary definitions for samizdat

samizdat

/ (Russian səmizˈdat) /

noun (in the former Soviet Union)

  1. a system of clandestine printing and distribution of banned or dissident literature
  2. (as modifier)a samizdat publication

Word Origin for samizdat

C20: from Russian, literally: self-published
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012