See useful idiot in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{ "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": [ { "kind": "topical", "langcode": "en", "name": "Politics", "orig": "en:Politics", "parents": [ "Society", "All topics", "Fundamental" ], "source": "w" }, { "_dis": "58 42", "kind": "other", "name": "English entries with incorrect language header", "parents": [ "Entries with incorrect language header", "Entry maintenance" ], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "58 42", "kind": "other", "name": "Entries with translation boxes", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "61 39", "kind": "other", "name": "Pages with 1 entry", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "66 34", "kind": "other", "name": "Pages with entries", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "75 25", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Catalan translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "69 31", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Czech translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "80 20", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Danish translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "67 33", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Estonian translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "72 28", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Finnish translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "64 36", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with French translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "70 30", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Georgian translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "64 36", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with German translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "65 35", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Greek translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "69 31", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Hebrew translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "68 32", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Hungarian translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "74 26", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Icelandic translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "70 30", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Italian translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "76 24", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Korean translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "71 29", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Mandarin translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "67 33", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Marathi translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "71 29", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Norwegian Bokmål translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "81 19", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Norwegian Nynorsk translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "64 36", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Polish translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "69 31", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Portuguese translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "70 30", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Russian translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "72 28", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Spanish translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "74 26", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Swedish translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "74 26", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Telugu translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "74 26", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Ukrainian translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "86 14", "kind": "topical", "langcode": "en", "name": "Communism", "orig": "en:Communism", "parents": [ "Ideologies", "Leftism", "Socialism", "Politics", "Society", "Economics", "All topics", "Social sciences", "Fundamental", "Sciences" ], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "79 21", "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": "quote" }, { "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": "quote" } ], "glosses": [ "A Communist sympathizer in Western countries, from the perspective of the political right." ], "id": "en-useful_idiot-en-noun-WGSJltmY", "links": [ [ "derogatory", "derogatory" ], [ "politics", "politics" ], [ "Communist", "Communist" ], [ "sympathizer", "sympathizer" ], [ "Western", "Western" ], [ "right", "right" ] ], "raw_glosses": [ "(historical, derogatory, politics) A Communist sympathizer in Western countries, from the perspective of the political right." ], "tags": [ "derogatory", "historical" ], "topics": [ "government", "politics" ], "translations": [ { "_dis1": "59 41", "code": "ca", "lang": "Catalan", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "feminine", "masculine" ], "word": "idiota útil" }, { "_dis1": "59 41", "code": "cmn", "lang": "Chinese Mandarin", "roman": "yǒuyòng de báichī", "sense": "Translations", "word": "有用的白痴" }, { "_dis1": "59 41", "code": "cs", "lang": "Czech", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "masculine" ], "word": "užitečný idiot" }, { "_dis1": "59 41", "code": "da", "lang": "Danish", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "common-gender" ], "word": "nyttig idiot" }, { "_dis1": "59 41", "code": "et", "lang": "Estonian", "sense": "Translations", "word": "kasulik idioot" }, { "_dis1": "59 41", "code": "fi", "lang": "Finnish", "sense": "Translations", "word": "hyödyllinen idiootti" }, { "_dis1": "59 41", "code": "fr", "lang": "French", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "masculine" ], "word": "idiot utile" }, { "_dis1": "59 41", "code": "fr", "lang": "French", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "feminine" ], "word": "idiote utile" }, { "_dis1": "59 41", "code": "ka", "lang": "Georgian", "roman": "sasargeblo idioṭi", "sense": "Translations", "word": "სასარგებლო იდიოტი" }, { "_dis1": "59 41", "code": "de", "lang": "German", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "masculine" ], "word": "nützlicher Idiot" }, { "_dis1": "59 41", "code": "de", "lang": "German", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "feminine" ], "word": "nützliche Idiotin" }, { "_dis1": "59 41", "code": "el", "lang": "Greek", "roman": "chrísimos ilíthios", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "masculine" ], "word": "χρήσιμος ηλίθιος" }, { "_dis1": "59 41", "code": "he", "english": "idiot shimushi", "lang": "Hebrew", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "masculine" ], "word": "אידיוט שימושי" }, { "_dis1": "59 41", "code": "hu", "lang": "Hungarian", "sense": "Translations", "word": "hasznos idióta" }, { "_dis1": "59 41", "code": "is", "lang": "Icelandic", "sense": "Translations", "word": "nytsamur sakleysingi" }, { "_dis1": "59 41", "code": "it", "lang": "Italian", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "feminine", "masculine" ], "word": "utile idiota" }, { "_dis1": "59 41", "code": "ko", "lang": "Korean", "roman": "yuyonghan babo", "sense": "Translations", "word": "유용한 바보" }, { "_dis1": "59 41", "code": "mr", "lang": "Marathi", "roman": "upyogī mūrkha", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "masculine" ], "word": "उपयोगी मूर्ख" }, { "_dis1": "59 41", "code": "mr", "lang": "Marathi", "roman": "kāmācā mūrkha", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "masculine" ], "word": "कामाचा मूर्ख" }, { "_dis1": "59 41", "code": "nb", "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "masculine" ], "word": "nyttig idiot" }, { "_dis1": "59 41", "code": "nn", "lang": "Norwegian Nynorsk", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "masculine" ], "word": "nyttig idiot" }, { "_dis1": "59 41", "code": "pl", "lang": "Polish", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "masculine" ], "word": "pożyteczny idiota" }, { "_dis1": "59 41", "code": "pl", "lang": "Polish", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "feminine" ], "word": "pożyteczna idiotka" }, { "_dis1": "59 41", "code": "pt", "lang": "Portuguese", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "feminine", "masculine" ], "word": "idiota útil" }, { "_dis1": "59 41", "code": "ru", "lang": "Russian", "roman": "poléznyj idiót", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "masculine" ], "word": "поле́зный идио́т" }, { "_dis1": "59 41", "code": "ru", "lang": "Russian", "roman": "poléznaja idiótka", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "feminine" ], "word": "поле́зная идио́тка" }, { "_dis1": "59 41", "code": "es", "lang": "Spanish", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "feminine", "masculine" ], "word": "idiota útil" }, { "_dis1": "59 41", "code": "es", "lang": "Spanish", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "masculine" ], "word": "tonto útil" }, { "_dis1": "59 41", "code": "es", "lang": "Spanish", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "masculine" ], "word": "tonta útil" }, { "_dis1": "59 41", "code": "sv", "lang": "Swedish", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "common-gender" ], "word": "nyttig idiot" }, { "_dis1": "59 41", "code": "te", "lang": "Telugu", "roman": "panikoccē cavaṭa", "sense": "Translations", "word": "పనికొచ్చే చవట" }, { "_dis1": "59 41", "code": "uk", "lang": "Ukrainian", "roman": "korýsnyj idiót", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "masculine" ], "word": "кори́сний ідіо́т" }, { "_dis1": "59 41", "code": "uk", "lang": "Ukrainian", "roman": "korýsna idiótka", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "feminine" ], "word": "кори́сна ідіо́тка" } ] }, { "categories": [ { "kind": "topical", "langcode": "en", "name": "Politics", "orig": "en:Politics", "parents": [ "Society", "All topics", "Fundamental" ], "source": "w" } ], "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": "quote" }, { "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": "quote" } ], "glosses": [ "One who unwittingly supports a malignant cause through naive attempts to be a force for good." ], "id": "en-useful_idiot-en-noun-9F-WDtkn", "links": [ [ "derogatory", "derogatory" ], [ "politics", "politics" ], [ "unwittingly", "unwittingly" ], [ "malignant", "malignant" ], [ "force", "force" ], [ "good", "good" ] ], "raw_glosses": [ "(derogatory, politics) One who unwittingly supports a malignant cause through naive attempts to be a force for good." ], "tags": [ "derogatory" ], "topics": [ "government", "politics" ] } ], "wikipedia": [ "Vladimir Lenin", "it:L'Umanità (quotidiano)" ], "word": "useful idiot" }
{ "categories": [ "English countable nouns", "English entries with incorrect language header", "English lemmas", "English multiword terms", "English nouns", "Entries with translation boxes", "Pages with 1 entry", "Pages with entries", "Terms with Catalan translations", "Terms with Czech translations", "Terms with Danish translations", "Terms with Estonian translations", "Terms with Finnish translations", "Terms with French translations", "Terms with Georgian translations", "Terms with German translations", "Terms with Greek translations", "Terms with Hebrew translations", "Terms with Hungarian translations", "Terms with Icelandic translations", "Terms with Italian translations", "Terms with Korean translations", "Terms with Mandarin translations", "Terms with Marathi translations", "Terms with Norwegian Bokmål translations", "Terms with Norwegian Nynorsk translations", "Terms with Polish translations", "Terms with Portuguese translations", "Terms with Russian translations", "Terms with Spanish translations", "Terms with Swedish translations", "Terms with Telugu translations", "Terms with Ukrainian translations", "Translation table header lacks gloss", "en:Communism", "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", "en:Politics" ], "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": "quote" }, { "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": "quote" } ], "glosses": [ "A Communist sympathizer in Western countries, from the perspective of the political right." ], "links": [ [ "derogatory", "derogatory" ], [ "politics", "politics" ], [ "Communist", "Communist" ], [ "sympathizer", "sympathizer" ], [ "Western", "Western" ], [ "right", "right" ] ], "raw_glosses": [ "(historical, derogatory, politics) A Communist sympathizer in Western countries, from the perspective of the political right." ], "tags": [ "derogatory", "historical" ], "topics": [ "government", "politics" ] }, { "categories": [ "English derogatory terms", "English terms with quotations", "en:Politics" ], "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": "quote" }, { "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": "quote" } ], "glosses": [ "One who unwittingly supports a malignant cause through naive attempts to be a force for good." ], "links": [ [ "derogatory", "derogatory" ], [ "politics", "politics" ], [ "unwittingly", "unwittingly" ], [ "malignant", "malignant" ], [ "force", "force" ], [ "good", "good" ] ], "raw_glosses": [ "(derogatory, politics) One who unwittingly supports a malignant cause through naive attempts to be a force for good." ], "tags": [ "derogatory" ], "topics": [ "government", "politics" ] } ], "translations": [ { "code": "ca", "lang": "Catalan", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "feminine", "masculine" ], "word": "idiota útil" }, { "code": "cmn", "lang": "Chinese Mandarin", "roman": "yǒuyòng de báichī", "sense": "Translations", "word": "有用的白痴" }, { "code": "cs", "lang": "Czech", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "masculine" ], "word": "užitečný idiot" }, { "code": "da", "lang": "Danish", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "common-gender" ], "word": "nyttig idiot" }, { "code": "et", "lang": "Estonian", "sense": "Translations", "word": "kasulik idioot" }, { "code": "fi", "lang": "Finnish", "sense": "Translations", "word": "hyödyllinen idiootti" }, { "code": "fr", "lang": "French", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "masculine" ], "word": "idiot utile" }, { "code": "fr", "lang": "French", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "feminine" ], "word": "idiote utile" }, { "code": "ka", "lang": "Georgian", "roman": "sasargeblo idioṭi", "sense": "Translations", "word": "სასარგებლო იდიოტი" }, { "code": "de", "lang": "German", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "masculine" ], "word": "nützlicher Idiot" }, { "code": "de", "lang": "German", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "feminine" ], "word": "nützliche Idiotin" }, { "code": "el", "lang": "Greek", "roman": "chrísimos ilíthios", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "masculine" ], "word": "χρήσιμος ηλίθιος" }, { "code": "he", "english": "idiot shimushi", "lang": "Hebrew", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "masculine" ], "word": "אידיוט שימושי" }, { "code": "hu", "lang": "Hungarian", "sense": "Translations", "word": "hasznos idióta" }, { "code": "is", "lang": "Icelandic", "sense": "Translations", "word": "nytsamur sakleysingi" }, { "code": "it", "lang": "Italian", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "feminine", "masculine" ], "word": "utile idiota" }, { "code": "ko", "lang": "Korean", "roman": "yuyonghan babo", "sense": "Translations", "word": "유용한 바보" }, { "code": "mr", "lang": "Marathi", "roman": "upyogī mūrkha", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "masculine" ], "word": "उपयोगी मूर्ख" }, { "code": "mr", "lang": "Marathi", "roman": "kāmācā mūrkha", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "masculine" ], "word": "कामाचा मूर्ख" }, { "code": "nb", "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "masculine" ], "word": "nyttig idiot" }, { "code": "nn", "lang": "Norwegian Nynorsk", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "masculine" ], "word": "nyttig idiot" }, { "code": "pl", "lang": "Polish", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "masculine" ], "word": "pożyteczny idiota" }, { "code": "pl", "lang": "Polish", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "feminine" ], "word": "pożyteczna idiotka" }, { "code": "pt", "lang": "Portuguese", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "feminine", "masculine" ], "word": "idiota útil" }, { "code": "ru", "lang": "Russian", "roman": "poléznyj idiót", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "masculine" ], "word": "поле́зный идио́т" }, { "code": "ru", "lang": "Russian", "roman": "poléznaja idiótka", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "feminine" ], "word": "поле́зная идио́тка" }, { "code": "es", "lang": "Spanish", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "feminine", "masculine" ], "word": "idiota útil" }, { "code": "es", "lang": "Spanish", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "masculine" ], "word": "tonto útil" }, { "code": "es", "lang": "Spanish", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "masculine" ], "word": "tonta útil" }, { "code": "sv", "lang": "Swedish", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "common-gender" ], "word": "nyttig idiot" }, { "code": "te", "lang": "Telugu", "roman": "panikoccē cavaṭa", "sense": "Translations", "word": "పనికొచ్చే చవట" }, { "code": "uk", "lang": "Ukrainian", "roman": "korýsnyj idiót", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "masculine" ], "word": "кори́сний ідіо́т" }, { "code": "uk", "lang": "Ukrainian", "roman": "korýsna idiótka", "sense": "Translations", "tags": [ "feminine" ], "word": "кори́сна ідіо́тка" } ], "wikipedia": [ "Vladimir Lenin", "it:L'Umanità (quotidiano)" ], "word": "useful idiot" }
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