Dynamitard

Illustrated Police News, London, 21 February 1885

A dynamitard was a person who used explosives for violence against the state, and is a niche metaphor for a revolutionary in politics, culture or social affairs.

Bombers

First appearing in English language newspapers in 1882, the word was understood to be a French expression applied to political terrorists in France. In reality, dynamitard is not a formal French word; French newspapers had conjured it up as a disdainful variant of dynamiteur. It was soon applied to Harry or Henry Burton and James Gilbert Cunningham, Irish-Americans who were charged with high treason and felony at Bow Street Police Court in 1885 for planting explosives in London and elsewhere. "A term of opprobrium for some and endearment for others, the dynamitard was technically a political dynamiter, of the kind that bombed railway carriages and exploded devices in the House of Commons in the name of Irish freedom, chiefly in the early 1880s."

Metaphorical sense

In nineteenth century politics the term came to be used, particularly by George Bernard Shaw, as metonymy for those who chose violent struggle — as opposed to gradual means — for achieving social revolution: a dynamitard was contrasted with a Fabian. Shaw himself, though a Fabian in politics, was described metaphorically as "a dynamitard among music and drama critics".

In popular culture

Between 1889 and 1903 Stevenston Thistle, who played in the Ayrshire Football League and elsewhere, were known as The Dynamitards. They did not live up to their name, however, losing 7-2 to Clyde F.C. in the first round of the 1894–95 Scottish Cup.

In high culture

Mocked as a neologism by Robert Louis and Fanny van de Grift Stevenson ("Any writard who writes dynamitard shall find in me a never-resting fightard"), its presence in dictionaries regretted by purists, there it has remained.