enemy of the people
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English
Etymology
Calque of Latin hostis publicus (compare public enemy). This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term. What's the origination point and rationale for this collocation?
Noun
enemy of the people (plural enemies of the people)
- (typically socialism or communism) A political or class opponent of the subgroup in power within a larger group.
- 1968, Robert Conquest, quoting Wladislaw Gomulka, “The Foreign Element”, in The Great Terror: Stalin's Purge of the Thirties, Macmillan Company, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 427:
- The NKVD organs . . . could extend the category of ‘enemy of the people’ to everyone who dared to utter a word of criticism.
Translations
a political or class opponent of the subgroup in power within a larger group
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