protofascist
protofascist adjective: showing the beginnings of fascism.
Adjective
protofascist (not comparable)
- Showing the beginnings of fascism.
- Even Lemon, for all her protofascist beliefs, wins our sympathy.1991 August 9, Jack Helbig, “Marie and Bruce”, in Chicago Reader
- When Newt Gingrich and his protofascist comrades took over Congress in 1994, they sneeringly boasted that they intended to take the federal government back to the 1920s.2008 April 7, Adolph Reed Jr., The Nation, archived from the original on 18 Mar 2009
Noun
protofascist (plural protofascists)
- One whose beliefs resembled fascism before the founding of fascism in 1919.
- The Social Darwinists are sometimes considered protofascists.
- Synonyms:
- prefascist
- One whose opinions or policies show the beginnings of fascism.
- That congressman is a protofascist.
- Along with stereotype-mongering phrases like “redneck America's life in the electronic theme park,” he occasionally reduces his countrymen to mindless proto-fascists.1989 April 30, Martha Bayles, “Taking Sitcoms Seriously”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
Synonyms of protofascist
Forms of protofascist
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| alternative form | proto-fascist |
| Noun | |
| plural | protofascists |
Origin of protofascist
From proto- + fascist.
Questions about protofascist
- What does protofascist mean?
- Protofascist means showing the beginnings of fascism.
- What part of speech is protofascist?
- Protofascist can be an adjective or a noun.
Words near protofascist in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: protofascist (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “protofascist.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/protofascist. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.