Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A radical republican from the urban lower and artisanal classes during the French Revolution.
  • noun A revolutionary extremist.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Literally, one who is without breeches: a name given to the poorer men of Paris who were prominent in the first French Revolution and took part in the attacks upon the court, the Bastille, etc.
  • noun Hence An advanced Republican; a revolutionist; by extension, a communist or anarchist.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A fellow without breeches; a ragged fellow; -- a name of reproach given in the first French revolution to the extreme republican party, who rejected breeches as an emblem peculiar to the upper classes or aristocracy, and adopted pantaloons.
  • noun Hence, an extreme or radical republican; a violent revolutionist; a Jacobin.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French : sans, without + culotte, breeches.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French sans-culotte.

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Examples

  • Sectional assemblies were typically the hotbeds of direct democracy and sans-culotte militancy.

    Annotations 2007

  • Hanriot was elected commander of the sans-culotte contingent of the Paris national guard after his participation in the uprising against Louis XVI on 10 August 1792.

    Names 2007

  • With his friend Billaud-Varenne, Collot d'Herbois was installed as a sans-culotte member of the Committee of Public Safety after popular unrest in

    Names 2007

  • Especially through its influence over sans-culotte activism, the Commune expanded its political role as the Revolution progressed.

    Annotations 2007

  • February 1794, he became associated with calls for sans-culotte insurrection and with the faction of Hébert, with whom he was executed on 24 March.

    Names 2007

  • (Thanks to threader sans-culotte for pointing us to this.)

    08/18/2005 2005

  • One need not share the values or worldview of a sans-culotte, in order to arrive at a justified appraisal of those values and worldview.

    Philosophy of History Little, Daniel 2007

  • He asserted that the family of the tyrant ought not to be better treated than any sans-culotte family; and he had caused a resolution to be passed by which the sort of luxury in which the prisoners in the Temple were maintained was to be suppressed.

    Archive 2007-10-14 de Brantigny........................ 2007

  • He asserted that the family of the tyrant ought not to be better treated than any sans-culotte family; and he had caused a resolution to be passed by which the sort of luxury in which the prisoners in the Temple were maintained was to be suppressed.

    The Trial Of Marie-Antoinette 14 Oct. 1793 de Brantigny........................ 2007

  • But if we were a Republic — you know I am an old Jacobin, sans-culotte and terrorist — if this were a real Republic with the Convention sitting and a Committee of Public Safety attending to national business, you would all get your heads cut off.

    The Arrow of Gold 2006

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