communism

• Communism

A calque of German Kommunismus (from the Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei (“Manifesto of the Communist Party”) by Marx and Engels, published in 1848), in turn a calque of French communisme, which was formed from commun (“common”) (from Latin commūnis) and the suffix -isme (“-ism”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɒm.juˌnɪzm̩/

communism (countable and uncountable, plural communisms)

1. Any far-left political ideology or philosophy advocating holding the production of resources collectively, especially by seizing it through revolution.

   Synonym: (dated, rare) aspheterism

   • 1932, D. H. Lawrence, The Letters of D.H. Lawrence, Edited by A. Huxley‎, page 219:

     I want to gather together about twenty souls and sail away from this world of war and squalor and found a little colony where there shall be no money but a sort of communism as far as necessaries of life go, and some real decency.

2. Any political social system that implements a communist political philosophy.
3. The international socialist society where classes, money, and the state no longer exist.

• See also the definitions of Communism.

• "communism" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 73.