defeatism

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French défaitisme, coined in 1915 by Russian writer Grigorij Aleksinskij as a translation of Russian пораже́нчество (poražénčestvo), also coined by him as a derivation of порази́ть (porazítʹ, “to strike, defeat”). By surface analysis, defeat +‎ -ism.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪˈfiːtɪzəm/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

defeatism (usually uncountable, plural defeatisms)

1. Acceptance of defeat without struggle.

   Objective assessment is good, but defeatism will reduce our potentials even when the prospects for victory have never been nearer.

Derived terms

• defeatist

Translations

acceptance of defeat without struggle

• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Belarusian: паражэнства n (paraženstva)
• Bulgarian: пораже́нство (bg) n (poražénstvo)
• Catalan: derrotisme m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 失敗主義 / 失败主义 (zh) (shībàizhǔyì)

• Czech: poraženectví f
• Danish: defaitisme c
• Dutch: defaitisme (nl) n, berusting (nl) c
• Finnish: tappiomieliala (fi), defaitismi (fi), antautumismieliala
• French: défaitisme (fr)
• Galician: derrotismo m
• German: Defätismus (de) m; Kapitulantentum n; Untergangsstimmung f
• Greek: ηττοπάθεια (el) f (ittopátheia)
• Hebrew: תבוסתנות f (tvustanut)
• Italian: disfattismo (it) m
• Japanese: 敗北主義 (はいぼくしゅぎ, haibokushugi)
• Polish: defetyzm (pl) m, niedasizm m
• Portuguese: derrotismo (pt) m
• Russian: дефети́зм (ru) m (defetízm), пораже́нчество (ru) n (poražénčestvo)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: дефетизам m

  Roman: defetizam m

• Spanish: derrotismo m
• Swedish: defaitism (sv)
• Ukrainian: дефети́зм m (defetýzm)