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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.
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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
Words nearby samizdat
Samian ware, samiel, samisen, samite, samiti, samizdat, Saml., samlet, Sammarinese, Sammartini, sammie
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2021
How to use samizdat in a sentence
Where are the writers who helped smuggle samizdat out from behind the Iron Curtain?
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)
- a system of clandestine printing and distribution of banned or dissident literature
- (as modifier)a samizdat publication
Word Origin for samizdat
C20: from Russian, literally: self-published
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
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