See useful idiot on Wiktionary
Download JSON data for useful idiot meaning in All languages combined (7.8kB)
{
"etymology_text": "The earliest known usage in Western media is in a 1948 article in the social-democratic Italian paper L'Umanità – as cited in the New York Times article on Italian politics (see quotations). Often misattributed to Vladimir Lenin.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "useful idiots",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "useful idiot (plural useful idiots)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "56 44",
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "People",
"orig": "en:People",
"parents": [
"Human",
"All topics",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1948 June 21, Arnold Cortesi, “Communist Shift Is Seen In Europe”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, page 14",
"text": "L'Umanita said the Communists would give the “useful idiots” of the left-wing Socialist party the choice of merging with the Communist party or getting out.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2020 August 7, Kurt Andersen, “College-Educated Professionals Are Capitalism’s Useful Idiots”, in The Atlantic",
"text": "During the 1930s and ’40s and ’50s, the right had derided liberal writers and editors as Communists’ “useful idiots,” unwittingly doing the Communists’ propaganda work; it looks in retrospect as if, starting in the 1970s, a lot of them—of us—became capitalists’ useful idiots.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Communist sympathizer in Western countries, from the perspective of the political right."
],
"id": "en-useful_idiot-en-noun-UeoCr1l~",
"links": [
[
"derogatory",
"derogatory"
],
[
"Communist",
"Communist"
],
[
"sympathizer",
"sympathizer"
],
[
"Western",
"Western"
],
[
"right",
"right"
]
],
"qualifier": "political jargon",
"raw_glosses": [
"(historical, derogatory, political jargon) Communist sympathizer in Western countries, from the perspective of the political right."
],
"tags": [
"derogatory",
"historical"
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "yǒuyòng de báichī",
"sense": "political sense",
"word": "有用的白痴"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"code": "cs",
"lang": "Czech",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "užitečný idiot"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "nyttig idiot"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"code": "et",
"lang": "Estonian",
"sense": "political sense",
"word": "kasulik idioot"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "political sense",
"word": "hyödyllinen idiootti"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "idiot utile"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "idiote utile"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "nützlicher Idiot"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "nützliche Idiotin"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"code": "el",
"lang": "Greek",
"roman": "chrísimos ilíthios",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "χρήσιμος ηλίθιος"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"code": "he",
"english": "idiot shimushi",
"lang": "Hebrew",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "אידיוט שימושי"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "political sense",
"word": "hasznos idióta"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"code": "is",
"lang": "Icelandic",
"sense": "political sense",
"word": "nytsamur sakleysingi"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"feminine",
"masculine"
],
"word": "utile idiota"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"code": "ko",
"lang": "Korean",
"roman": "yuyonghan babo",
"sense": "political sense",
"word": "유용한 바보"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"code": "nb",
"lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "nyttig idiot"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"code": "nn",
"lang": "Norwegian Nynorsk",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "nyttig idiot"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "pożyteczny idiota"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "pożyteczna idiotka"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"feminine",
"masculine"
],
"word": "idiota útil"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "poléznyj idiót",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "поле́зный идио́т"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "poléznaja idiótka",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "поле́зная идио́тка"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"feminine",
"masculine"
],
"word": "idiota útil"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "tonto útil"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "tonta útil"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "nyttig idiot"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"code": "te",
"lang": "Telugu",
"roman": "panikoccē cavaṭa",
"sense": "political sense",
"word": "పనికొచ్చే చవట"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"code": "uk",
"lang": "Ukrainian",
"roman": "korýsnyj idiót",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "кори́сний ідіо́т"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"code": "uk",
"lang": "Ukrainian",
"roman": "korýsna idiótka",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "кори́сна ідіо́тка"
}
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "35 65",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "31 69",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
"parents": [
"Entries with topic categories using raw markup",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "29 71",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
"parents": [
"Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2009 January 22, Alex Knepper, “Obama's cabinet appointments contradict with message”, in The Mirror (Fairfield University), volume 34, number 15, page 3",
"text": "But what should the Obama Cult do now? The man has turned off the switch on the \"Hopenosis\" and has revealed the \"Change Brigade\" for the useful idiots they were.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2020 September 14, Jeffrey Goldberg, quoting Alexander Vindman, “Alexander Vindman: Trump Is Putin’s ‘Useful Idiot’”, in The Atlantic",
"text": "“President Trump should be considered to be a useful idiot and a fellow traveler, which makes him an unwitting agent of Putin,” he says.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"One who is seen to unwittingly support a malignant cause through their 'naive' attempts to be a force for good."
],
"id": "en-useful_idiot-en-noun-81EGrFav",
"links": [
[
"derogatory",
"derogatory"
],
[
"unwittingly",
"unwittingly"
],
[
"malignant",
"malignant"
],
[
"good",
"good"
]
],
"qualifier": "political jargon",
"raw_glosses": [
"(derogatory, political jargon) One who is seen to unwittingly support a malignant cause through their 'naive' attempts to be a force for good."
],
"tags": [
"derogatory"
]
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"Vladimir Lenin",
"it:L'Umanità (quotidiano)"
],
"word": "useful idiot"
}
{
"categories": [
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
"en:People"
],
"etymology_text": "The earliest known usage in Western media is in a 1948 article in the social-democratic Italian paper L'Umanità – as cited in the New York Times article on Italian politics (see quotations). Often misattributed to Vladimir Lenin.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "useful idiots",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "useful idiot (plural useful idiots)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English derogatory terms",
"English terms with historical senses",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1948 June 21, Arnold Cortesi, “Communist Shift Is Seen In Europe”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, page 14",
"text": "L'Umanita said the Communists would give the “useful idiots” of the left-wing Socialist party the choice of merging with the Communist party or getting out.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2020 August 7, Kurt Andersen, “College-Educated Professionals Are Capitalism’s Useful Idiots”, in The Atlantic",
"text": "During the 1930s and ’40s and ’50s, the right had derided liberal writers and editors as Communists’ “useful idiots,” unwittingly doing the Communists’ propaganda work; it looks in retrospect as if, starting in the 1970s, a lot of them—of us—became capitalists’ useful idiots.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Communist sympathizer in Western countries, from the perspective of the political right."
],
"links": [
[
"derogatory",
"derogatory"
],
[
"Communist",
"Communist"
],
[
"sympathizer",
"sympathizer"
],
[
"Western",
"Western"
],
[
"right",
"right"
]
],
"qualifier": "political jargon",
"raw_glosses": [
"(historical, derogatory, political jargon) Communist sympathizer in Western countries, from the perspective of the political right."
],
"tags": [
"derogatory",
"historical"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English derogatory terms",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2009 January 22, Alex Knepper, “Obama's cabinet appointments contradict with message”, in The Mirror (Fairfield University), volume 34, number 15, page 3",
"text": "But what should the Obama Cult do now? The man has turned off the switch on the \"Hopenosis\" and has revealed the \"Change Brigade\" for the useful idiots they were.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2020 September 14, Jeffrey Goldberg, quoting Alexander Vindman, “Alexander Vindman: Trump Is Putin’s ‘Useful Idiot’”, in The Atlantic",
"text": "“President Trump should be considered to be a useful idiot and a fellow traveler, which makes him an unwitting agent of Putin,” he says.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"One who is seen to unwittingly support a malignant cause through their 'naive' attempts to be a force for good."
],
"links": [
[
"derogatory",
"derogatory"
],
[
"unwittingly",
"unwittingly"
],
[
"malignant",
"malignant"
],
[
"good",
"good"
]
],
"qualifier": "political jargon",
"raw_glosses": [
"(derogatory, political jargon) One who is seen to unwittingly support a malignant cause through their 'naive' attempts to be a force for good."
],
"tags": [
"derogatory"
]
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "yǒuyòng de báichī",
"sense": "political sense",
"word": "有用的白痴"
},
{
"code": "cs",
"lang": "Czech",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "užitečný idiot"
},
{
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "nyttig idiot"
},
{
"code": "et",
"lang": "Estonian",
"sense": "political sense",
"word": "kasulik idioot"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "political sense",
"word": "hyödyllinen idiootti"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "idiot utile"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "idiote utile"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "nützlicher Idiot"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "nützliche Idiotin"
},
{
"code": "el",
"lang": "Greek",
"roman": "chrísimos ilíthios",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "χρήσιμος ηλίθιος"
},
{
"code": "he",
"english": "idiot shimushi",
"lang": "Hebrew",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "אידיוט שימושי"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "political sense",
"word": "hasznos idióta"
},
{
"code": "is",
"lang": "Icelandic",
"sense": "political sense",
"word": "nytsamur sakleysingi"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"feminine",
"masculine"
],
"word": "utile idiota"
},
{
"code": "ko",
"lang": "Korean",
"roman": "yuyonghan babo",
"sense": "political sense",
"word": "유용한 바보"
},
{
"code": "nb",
"lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "nyttig idiot"
},
{
"code": "nn",
"lang": "Norwegian Nynorsk",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "nyttig idiot"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "pożyteczny idiota"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "pożyteczna idiotka"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"feminine",
"masculine"
],
"word": "idiota útil"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "poléznyj idiót",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "поле́зный идио́т"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "poléznaja idiótka",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "поле́зная идио́тка"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"feminine",
"masculine"
],
"word": "idiota útil"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "tonto útil"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "tonta útil"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "nyttig idiot"
},
{
"code": "te",
"lang": "Telugu",
"roman": "panikoccē cavaṭa",
"sense": "political sense",
"word": "పనికొచ్చే చవట"
},
{
"code": "uk",
"lang": "Ukrainian",
"roman": "korýsnyj idiót",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "кори́сний ідіо́т"
},
{
"code": "uk",
"lang": "Ukrainian",
"roman": "korýsna idiótka",
"sense": "political sense",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "кори́сна ідіо́тка"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"Vladimir Lenin",
"it:L'Umanità (quotidiano)"
],
"word": "useful idiot"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.