Ideology
/ˌaɪdiˈɒlədʒi/noun
A system of ideas and beliefs, especially one underlying political or economic action.
The Greek roots
Literally: “study of ideas”
The story of the word
Antoine Destutt de Tracy coined idéologie in 1796 for a proposed science of ideas, an attempt to trace where thoughts come from as rigorously as chemists traced compounds. Napoleon then used idéologue as a sneer at theorists meddling in real government, and the insult travelled further than the science ever did. By the middle of the next century, and decisively after Marx, ideology meant a belief system serving someone's interests, which is close to the opposite of what its inventor wanted.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → French coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1796
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
In a sentence
The party swapped its ideology for a focus group and won.
You can read the ideology straight off the budget lines.