identitarian

English

Etymology

From identity +‎ -arian, coined 1943 by Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, from the 1970s onward reinforced by French identitaire, especially after the use of the term ensembliste-identitaire by Cornelius Castoriadis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aɪˌdɛntɪˈtɛəɹi.ən/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

Adjective

identitarian (comparative more identitarian, superlative most identitarian)

1. Based on a notion of group identity; relating to the ideology of identitarianism.
   • 1943, Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, The Menace of the Herd, or Procrustes at Large, e.g:

     "The revolution in the Vendée, where peasants and noblemen had risen against the identitarian terrorists of Paris" (p. 117)

   • 2017 July 21, Jason Horowitz, “For Right-Wing Italian Youth, a Mission to Disrupt Migration”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     It began in May, when Mr. Fiato, a leader of the Italian branch of a European right-wing movement that calls itself identitarian, joined his allies in using an inflatable raft to momentarily delay a ship carrying Doctors Without Borders personnel that was chartered to rescue migrants at sea.

2. Relating to personal identity; as racial, gender, sexual, etc.
   • 2015, Jane Ward, Not Gay, New York University Press, →ISBN, page 129:

     Sex between men is articulated as a casual act of “being free to be a man” that need not have any troubling gay identitarian consequences.

Noun

identitarian (plural identitarians)

1. One who supports the theory of identitarianism.
   • 2017 August 29, David Brooks, “How Trump Kills the G.O.P.”, in The New York Times‎^[2], →ISSN:

     Recent surveys suggest that roughly 47 percent of Republicans are what you might call conservative universalists and maybe 40 percent are what you might call conservative white identitarians.

   • 2019 August 6, Lauretta Charlton, “What Is the Great Replacement?”, in The New York Times‎^[3], →ISSN:

     One very clever move these identitarians make — and, it has to be said, this is an exploitable opening provided to them in part by the progressive left — is to cynically proclaim their “whiteness” as just another form of diversity that is in danger of erasure.

See also

• identarian