sans-culotte
Americannoun
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sans-culottes
plural
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(in the French Revolution) a revolutionary of the poorer class: originally a term of contempt applied by the aristocrats but later adopted as a popular name by the revolutionaries.
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any extreme republican or revolutionary.
noun
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(originally) a revolutionary of the poorer class
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(later) any revolutionary, esp one having extreme republican sympathies
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any revolutionary extremist
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of sans-culotte
1780–90; < French: literally, without knee breeches
Explanation
A sans-culotte was a member of a working class political group in 18th- and 19th-century France. The sans-culottes played a large role in the French Revolution. The term sans-culotte means "without breeches" in French. This doesn’t mean that these radical partisans didn’t wear pants, but instead refers to their lower-class status. Wealthy, aristocratic French men typically wore knee-length breeches made of silk, while the working class sans-culottes dressed more practically, in long trousers. The group advocated for direct democracy, taxing the rich, and the idea that everyone was created equal.
Vocabulary lists containing sans-culotte
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Bastille Day, marking 229 years since the sans-culotte decided they’d had enough of the Ancien Régime and stormed the fortress, a crucial stage of the French Revolution.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 14, 2018
He created effective turns for small characters, and the Met’s solid supporting cast includes the robust bass Robert Pomakov as Mathieu, a sans-culotte.
From New York Times ● Mar. 25, 2014
A self-styled "evolutionary socialist," he hit the pukka sahibs of Malaya and its environs like a revolutionary sans-culotte.
From Time Magazine Archive
Instead, she gets Seymour Moskowitz, who pursues her with the fierce dedication of a sans-culotte storming the Bastille.
From Time Magazine Archive
"Perhaps now you will admit the justice of my plaint that you did not make a simple purchase of my liberty, as I counselled you, instead of entering into this idiotic compact with that sans-culotte."
From The Trampling of the Lilies by Rafael Sabatini
The author of Rebecca and Jamaica Inn had been brought up on tales of an aristocratic ancestor who came to London during the French Revolution, fleeing the guillotine and the militant sans-culottes.
From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2022
The sans-culottes of the French Revolution and the yellow vests of the French revolt centuries later.
From New York Times ● Jun. 16, 2020
It was an uprising of enslaved people—the “true sans-culottes of the colonies,” according to one French Republican leader—in Saint-Domingue that forced the 1794 abolition of slavery.
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 12, 2019
"I've studied this period — my graduation collection was inspired by the incroyables, the sans-culottes, the French Revolution. "
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 2, 2016
About this time the officers were obliged by the sans-culottes to wear worsted instead of gold or silver shoulder-knots; and no more cloudy carriages were to be seen in the streets.
From A Trip to Paris in July and August 1792 by Richard Twiss
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.
