Demagogue
/ˈdɛməˌɡɑːɡ/noun
A political leader who wins support by working on people's fears and prejudices rather than by argument.
The Greek roots
Literally: “leader of the people”
The story of the word
In fifth-century Athens the word could still be said flatly, but Thucydides and Aristophanes had already poisoned it, and their demagogue is Cleon, the tanner who shouted down the assembly. English borrowed it in the 1640s in the middle of a civil war and has never once used it as a compliment. The second half, ἀγωγός, also gives pedagogue, the household slave whose job was leading the child to school.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → French → English
- First recorded
- 1640s
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
In a sentence
Calling an opponent a demagogue has itself become a demagogue's move.
The constitution was written by men who had read their Thucydides on demagogues.