Jacobin. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

Jacobin

SYLLABICATION:	Jac·o·bin
PRONUNCIATION:	jk-bn
NOUN:	1. A radical or extreme leftist. 2. A radical republican during the French Revolution. 3. A Dominican friar.
ETYMOLOGY:	Middle English, Dominican friar, from French, from Old French (frere) jacobin (translation of Medieval Latin (frter) Jacbnus, Jacobinic brother, from Jacbus, James, after the church of Saint Jacques in Paris, near which the friars built their first convent). Sense 2, from the fact that the Jacobins first met in the convent.
OTHER FORMS:	Jaco·binic, Jaco·bini·cal —ADJECTIVE Jaco·bin·ism —NOUN Jaco·bin·ize (-b-nz) —VERB


The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.