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samizdat

[sah-miz-daht; Russian suh-myiz-daht]
noun
  1. a clandestine publishing system within the Soviet Union, by which forbidden or unpublishable literature was reproduced and circulated privately.
  2. a work or periodical circulated by this system.
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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. 2018

Examples from the Web for samizdat

Historical Examples

  • 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

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
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Word Origin

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

Word Origin and History for samizdat

n.

"illegal and clandestine copying and sharing of literature," 1967, from Russian samizdat, literally "self-publishing," from sam "self" (see same) + izdatel'stvo "publishing" (from iz "from, out of," from PIE *eghs; see ex-; + dat' "to give," from PIE *do-; see date (n.1)). Said to be a word-play on Gosizdat, the former state publishing house of the U.S.S.R. One who took part in it was a samizdatchik (plural samizdatchiki).

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper