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
There are men who will exchange the jacket of the sans-culotte for the gilded livery of an imperial functionary.
From Marie Antoinette and the Downfall of Royalty by Arthur Léon, baron Imbert de Saint-Amand
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
During the French Revolution, Parisian women had requested the right to wear trousers and working-class revolutionaries became known as "sans-culottes" for wearing trousers instead of the silk-knee breeches preferred by the bourgeoisie.
From BBC ● Feb. 4, 2013
If we could only find someone among the sans-culottes where they could hide over one night,—someone who is at heart a sympathiser!
From When a Cobbler Ruled a King by Augusta Huiell Seaman
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