Dynamitard

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.

Illustrated Police News, London, 21 February 1885

Bombers

First appearing in English language newspapers in 1882,^[1][2][3] the word was understood to be a French expression applied to political terrorists in France.^[4] In reality, dynamitard is not a formal French word; French newspapers had conjured it up as a disdainful variant of dynamiteur.^[5] It was soon applied to Harry or Henry Burton and James Gilbert Cunningham,^[6] Irish-Americans who were charged with high treason and felony at Bow Street Police Court in 1885 for planting explosives in London and elsewhere.^[4][7][8] "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."^[9]

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.^[10][11] Shaw himself, though a Fabian in politics, was described metaphorically as "a dynamitard among music and drama critics".^[12]

In popular culture

Between 1889^[13] and 1903^[14] Stevenston Thistle, who played in the Ayrshire Football League and elsewhere,^[15] were known as The Dynamitards.^[16] 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"),^[17] its presence in dictionaries regretted by purists,^[18] there it has remained.