bolshevik

Where does the word "bolshevik" come from? It comes from Russian bolshinstvo, and was adopted directly into English (1917).

Bolshevik’s story begins in Russian: bolshinstvo meant “majority.” Literally majority, the name taken by Lenin's faction after it won a key vote at the party's 1903 congress, held in Brussels and London. It reached English by 1917 as bolshevik. Settled as the word for the Russian revolutionary and, later, any radical. Today, bolshevik means a member of the Russian revolutionary party, or loosely, any radical.

1. Stage 1 · Russian · 1900s bolshinstvo "majority", literally majority, the name taken by Lenin's faction after it won a key vote at the party's 1903 congress, held in Brussels and London.
2. Stage 2 · English · 1917 bolshevik "a member of the Russian revolutionary majority faction", settled as the word for the Russian revolutionary and, later, any radical.