reactionary
adjective
- favoring a return to the past; against change
- person who holds political views that favor a return to the previous political state of society
noun
- person with political views favoring return to a previous state
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ɹiˈækʃən(ə)ɹi/ / /ɹiˈæk.ʃəˌnɛɚ.i/ / /ɹiˈæk.t͡ʃəˌnɛɚ.i/
adj
Etymology: Borrowed from French réactionnaire, equivalent to reaction + -ary. Used in the time of the French revolution to refer to a person opposing the revolution; as in favoring a reaction against the revolution.
- Extremely conservative; opposing revolution (such as the French Revolution); favoring a return to a "golden age" of the past.
“There's a fairly simple reason for the embrace of radicalism on the right, and it has to do with the reactionary imperative that lies at the core of conservative doctrine. […] If he is to preserve what he values, the conservative must declare war against the culture as it is.”
“[Jeffrey] Epstein was interested in transhumanism, a theory of human perfection via technological manipulation that—like its predecessor, eugenics—is shot through with racist and reactionary ideas.”
- Of, pertaining to, participating in, or inducing a chemical reaction.
“Psychiatry extends the theory into biology in the belief that all human behavior is nothing more than a series of reactionary chemical processes in the brain that determine pre-coded genetic responses built up from the conditioning of one’s environment.”
- In reaction to; as a result of.
“The regulator noted that reduced service levels and passenger numbers helped deliver strong performance, with fewer reactionary delays.”
noun
Etymology: Borrowed from French réactionnaire, equivalent to reaction + -ary. Used in the time of the French revolution to refer to a person opposing the revolution; as in favoring a reaction against the revolution.
- One who opposes revolution, wanting to reverse it, favoring a return to a past golden age, often used derogatorily by revolutionaires.
“Hindu reactionaries, whose conception of a well-ordered society had not moved beyond the laws of Manu, fell into line for the moment with the intellectual products of the modern Indian University.”
“He was not a drunkard, not a chronic bankrupt. For the rest, Mr. Woodward depicts [Thomas] Paine as a highminded controversialist, persecuted by reactionaries on both sides of the Atlantic for no more than liberal political views.”