Dynamitard

First appearing in English language newspapers in 1882,[1][2][3] the word was understood to be a French expression applied to political terrorists in France.[4] In reality, dynamitard is not a formal French word; French newspapers had conjured it up as a disdainful variant of dynamiteur.[5] It was soon applied to Burton and Cunningham,[6] Irish-Americans who had planted explosives in London.[4][7] "A term of opprobrium for some and endearment for others, the dynamitard was technically a political dynamiter, of the kind that bombed railway carriages and exploded devices in the House of Commons in the name of Irish freedom, chiefly in the early 1880s."[8]

In nineteenth century politics the term came to be used, particularly by George Bernard Shaw, as metonymy for those who chose violent struggle — as opposed to gradual means — for achieving social revolution: a dynamitard was contrasted with a Fabian.[9][10] Shaw himself, though a Fabian in politics, was described metaphorically as "a dynamitard among music and drama critics".[11]

Between 1889[12] and 1903[13] Stevenston Thistle, who played in the Ayrshire Football League and elsewhere,[14] were known as The Dynamitards.[15] They did not live up to their name, however, losing 7-2 to Clyde F.C. in the first round of the 1894–95 Scottish Cup.

Mocked as a neologism by Robert Louis and Fanny van de Grift Stevenson ("Any writard who writes dynamitard shall find in me a never-resting fightard"),[16] its presence in dictionaries regretted by purists,[17] there it has remained.