apparatchik

English

WOTD – 22 April 2011

Etymology

From Russian аппара́тчик (apparátčik, “operator, apparatchik”), from аппара́т (apparát, “apparat, apparatus (of state)”) + suffix -чик (-čik).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /apəˈɹatʃɪk/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /æpəˈɹæt͡ʃɪk/

Noun

apparatchik (plural apparatchiks or apparatchiki)

1. (historical) A member of the Soviet apparat; a Communist bureaucrat or agent. [from 20th c.]
   • 1965 February 12, “Russia: Borrowing from the Capitalists”, in Time‎^[1], volume 85, →ISSN, archived from the original on 10 March 2009:

     Whether conservatively toeing their Marx or boldly advocating such heretical Western-style reforms as the primacy of profits, every important planner, apparatchik and economist in Russia is caught up in Communism's greatest debate since Stalin set backward Russia on its cruel-but successful-forced march into the 20th century industrial world.

   • 2007, Elizabeth Roberts, Realm of the Black Mountain: A History of Montenegro, Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OL, page 34:

     In these dire conditions the ambitious Serbo-Croatian Communist Party apparatchik Slobodan Milošević played the national card in Kosovo.

2. (by extension) A blindly loyal bureaucrat. [from 20th c.]
   • 2007 April 20, “Gonzales v. Gonzales”, in The New York Times‎^[2], →ISSN:

     Mr. Gonzales came across as a dull-witted apparatchik incapable of running one of the most important departments in the executive branch. […] He delegated responsibility for purging their ranks to an inexperienced and incompetent assistant who, if that’s possible, was even more of a plodding apparatchik.

   • 2011 February 27, Peter Preston, “The Unfinished Global Revolution by Mark Malloch Brown – review”, in The Observer‎^[3], →ISSN:

     He's so outspoken, so little the Labour apparatchik, that Prime Minister Brown decides he can't send this voluble critic of Iraq invasion to sit at a UN occasion alongside George W Bush.

   • 2024 June 7, Angelique Chrisafis, quoting Gabriel Attal, “‘You can feel a shift’: will the French be lured by Le Pen?”, in The Guardian‎^[4], →ISSN:

     “Does France, a founder member of the EU, really want to be the country that sends the biggest battalion of far-right apparatchiks to the European parliament?” [Gabriel] Attal asked.

Translations

member of a Communist apparat

• Chinese:

  Mandarin:

• Dutch: apparatsjik (nl) m
• Finnish: apparatsikki (fi)
• French: apparatchik (fr) m
• German: Apparatschik (de) m
• Greek: απαράτσικ (el) m or f (aparátsik)
• Icelandic: kerfiskommi m
• Italian: apparatcik (it) m, apparatčik m
• Japanese: 党官僚 (とうかんりょう, tōkanryō), アパラチク (aparachiku)
• Lithuanian: aparatčikas
• Norwegian: apparatsjik m
• Polish: aparatczyk (pl) m
• Portuguese: apparatchik (pt) m, aparatchik (pt) m
• Romanian: nomenclaturist m
• Russian: аппара́тчик (ru) m (apparátčik), аппара́тчица (ru) f (apparátčica)
• Serbo-Croatian: aparàtčik (sh) m, апаратчик m
• Spanish: apparatchik m
• Swedish: partifunktionär (sv) c, apparattjik c, apparatjik c
• Yiddish: אַפּאַראַטשיק m (aparatshik)

blindly loyal bureaucrat

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 官僚 (zh) (guānliáo)

• French: apparatchik (fr) m
• Icelandic: kerfiskarl m, kerfiskona f
• Polish: aparatczyk (pl) m
• Russian: аппара́тчик (ru) m (apparátčik), функционе́р (ru) m (funkcionér) (disapprovingly), чину́ша (ru) m or f (činúša) (colloquial, pejorative)

Further reading

• apparatchik on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

apparatchik m (plural apparatchiks)

1. apparatchik

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• aparatchik

Noun

apparatchik m (plural apparatchiks)

1. (historical) apparatchik (Communist bureaucrat or agent)