chauvinism: [19] Chauvinism in its original sense of ‘blind patriotism’ was coined in French from the name of one Nicholas Chauvin of Rochefort, a (possibly legendary) French soldier and veteran of Napoleon’s campaigns noted for his patriotic zeal. He was taken up and ridiculed as the type of the old soldier forever harking back to the glories of Napoleon’s times, and became widely known particularly through the play La cocarde tricolore 1831 by the brothers Cogniard, in which there occurs the line ‘Je suis français, je suis Chauvin’.
Hence French chauvinisme, which first appeared in English in 1870. The word’s more general application to an unreasoning belief in the superiority of one’s own group (particularly in the context male chauvinism) arose around 1970.
chauvinism (n.)
1840, "exaggerated, blind nationalism; patriotism degenerated into a vice," from French chauvinisme (1839), from the character Nicholas Chauvin, soldier of Napoleon's Grand Armee, notoriously attached to the Empire long after it was history, in the Cogniards' popular 1831 vaudeville "La Cocarde Tricolore." Meaning extended to "sexism" via male chauvinism (1969).
The name is a French form of Latin Calvinus and thus Calvinism and chauvinism are, etymologically, twins. The name was a common one in Napoleon's army, and if there was a real person at the base of the character in the play, he has not been certainly identified by etymologists, though memoirs of Waterloo (one published in Paris in 1822) mention "one of our principal piqueurs, named Chauvin, who had returned with Napoleon from Elba," which implies loyalty.
双语例句
1. It may also appeal to the latent chauvinism of many ordinary people.
它可能也迎合了许多普通人心中的沙文主义情结。
来自柯林斯例句
2. Betty had no idea what male chauvinism was.
贝蒂不知道大男子主义是怎么回事.
来自《简明英汉词典》
3. The capitalists of our times continued vigorously to cultivate white chauvinism.
当代的资本家继续卖力地培养白种沙文主义.
来自辞典例句
4. People who support equal rights for women fight against male chauvinism.
支持男女平等的人反对大男子主义.
来自辞典例句
5. In stressing the American qualities inherent in American literature there is a danger of cultural chauvinism.
