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Webster 1913 Edition


Dissident

Dis′si-dent

,
Adj.
[L.
dissidens
,
-entis
, p. pr. of
dissidere
to sit apart, to disagree;
dis-
+
sedere
to sit: cf. F.
dissident
. See
Sit
.]
No agreeing; dissenting; discordant; different.
Our life and manners be
dissident
from theirs.
Robynson (More’s Utopia).

Dis′si-dent

,
Noun.
(Eccl.)
One who disagrees or dissents; one who separates from the established religion.
The
dissident
, habituated and taught to think of his dissidenc[GREEK] as a laudable and necessary opposition to ecclesiastical usurpation.
I. Taylor.

Webster 1828 Edition


Dissident

DISSIDENT

,
Adj.
[L., to disagree; to sit.] Not agreeing.

DISSIDENT

,
Noun.
A dissenter; one who separates from the established religion; a word applied to the members of the Lutheran, Calvinistic and Greek churches in Poland.

Definition 2024


Dissident

Dissident

See also: dissident

German

Noun

Dissident m (genitive Dissidenten, plural Dissidenten, feminine Dissidentin)

  1. dissident

Declension

dissident

dissident

See also: Dissident

English

Russian nuclear physicist Andrei Sakharov (1921–1989), who became a prominent Soviet dissident and activist for nuclear disarmament, peace and human rights

Adjective

dissident (comparative more dissident, superlative most dissident)

  1. In a manner that disagrees; dissenting; discordant; different.

Noun

dissident (plural dissidents)

  1. A person who formally opposes the current political structure, the political group in power, the policies of the political group in power, or current laws.
    • 1895 June 15, “Claude Monet”, in The Speaker, volume 11, London: Mather & Crowther, OCLC 39096282, page 658:
      I once more find myself a dissident, and a dissident in a very small minority.
    • 1989, Stephen F. Cohen; Katrina vanden Heuvel, quoting Len Karpinsky, “The Autobiography of a ‘Half-Dissident’”, in Voices of Glasnost: Interviews with Gorbachev's Reformers, New York, N.Y.: W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN 978-0-393-02625-2, page 280:
      It is largely the story of a man who fell from being a potential leader of the Soviet Communist Party in the early 1960s to being an outcast by the mid-1970s – a dissident in the eyes of officialdom, a "half-dissident" in his own eyes.
    • 2013, John Horgan, Here to Stay?”, in Divided We Stand: The Strategy and Psychology of Ireland's Dissident Terrorists, Oxford; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-977285-8:
      Before [Martyn] Frampton published his book Legion of the Rearguard, an exhaustive examination of the dissidents, he highlighted sections of it released in a report by the International Center for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) at King's College, London, entitled "The Return of the Militants."
  2. (Christianity) One who disagrees or dissents; one who separates from the established religion.
    1. (Christianity, specifically, historical) Sometimes Dissident: in the kingdom of Poland, the name for Christians not part of the Roman Catholic Church.
      • 1733 May, “Foreign Advices in May, 1733”, in “Sylvanus Urban” [pseudonym; Edward Cave], editor, The Gentleman's Magazine: or Monthly Intelligencer, volume III, number 24, London: Printed, and sold at St John's Gate, by F. Jeffries in Ludgate-street, and most booksellers, OCLC 677154342, page 272:
        From Warſaw, May 25. That the Dyet of Convocation had held its laſt Seſſion on the 22d, and then agreed to and ſign'd a general Confederacy in good Order, having firſt Sworn not to Elect a Foreigner as above. The Day of Election was fixt for the 25th of Aug. But a Proteſt was enter'd by the Diſſidents, who had been excluded.
      • 1767, Reflections on the Affairs of the Dissidents in Poland, London: [s.n.], OCLC 642456110, page 7:
        The Article which enjoins Peace among the Diſſidents was ſigned by all the Catholics then present, and ſo are alſo the continual Repetitions of it in all the Pacta Conventa, and in the ſame Terms, to the Death of the late King; whereas the Confederacies of 1717 and 1733 are not signed by the Diſſidents, who were expelled from thence by Force.
      • 1768 March, “VIII. Original Pieces, concerning the Present Situation of the Protestants and Greeks in Poland. Wherein are Contained, The Explanation of Their Rights Published by the Court of Russia: The Articles of the Peace of Oliva: The Confederacies of the Dissidents, and the Declarations of the Protestant Courts in Their Favour: The Speeches of the Bishop of Cracovia and the Pope's Nuncio: The Constitutions of the Diet of 1766: And the Articles of the College of the Bishops Allowed to the Dissidents, &c. &c. &c. Translated from the Originals. 8vo. Pr[ice] 2s. 6d. Baker.”, in The Critical Review: Or, Annals of Literature, volume XXV, London: Printed for A. Hamilton, in Falcon-Court, Fleet-Street, OCLC 614474270, pages 206–207:
        Theſe Pieces are introduced by a very ſenſible preface, explaining the hardſhips and injuſtice which have been inflicted upon the Diſſidents of Poland. We there ſee that the Diſſidents (by whom are meant the proteſtants and the Greeks) had their privileges eſtablished by the fundamental laws paſſed in 1572; and that theſe rights were confirmed by the treaty of Oliva in 1660, which was guarantied by the principal powers of Europe.
      • 1863, R[obert] G[ordon] Latham, “Poland from Sigismund II. to the Partition”, in The Nationalities of Europe. [...] In Two Volumes, volume I, London: Wm. H. Allen & Co., 13, Waterloo Place, S.W., OCLC 84435209, page 53:
        A Socinian was a Dissident, and a member of the Greek Church was a Dissident; and these Dissidents agreed to act together. Even a liberal Romanist might be called a Dissident.
      • 2013, Brendan [Peter] Simms, Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy, from 1453 to the Present, London: Allen Lane, ISBN 978-0-7139-9427-8:
        The rest, about half a million Russian Orthodox and about the same number of Protestants, were known as ‘dissidents’; the huge Jewish community defied classification.

Related terms

Translations


Dutch

Pronunciation

  • Hyphenation: dis‧si‧dent
  • Rhymes: -ɛnt

Etymology

Latin dissidens, -entis, present participle of dissidere (to sit apart, to disagree); dis- + sedere to sit.

Noun

dissident m, f (plural dissidenten, diminutive dissidentje n)

  1. dissident

French

Etymology

From Latin dissident

Adjective

dissident m (feminine singular dissidente, masculine plural dissidents, feminine plural dissidentes)

  1. dissenting, dissident

Noun

dissident m, f (plural dissidents)

  1. dissident, someone who has dissenting opinion

Latin

Verb

dissident

  1. third-person plural present active indicative of dissideō