- Today's Word
Egalitarian
ee-gal-ih-TAIR-ee-uhn
Definition
(adjective) Based on or supporting the belief that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities.
Example
The candidate’s egalitarian policies appealed to a wide range of voters.
Fun Fact
Egalitarian ideas rose to prominence during the Enlightenment, but the term is still used today in conversations about workplace equity, access to education, and systemic reform. It’s often contrasted with hierarchical systems, and used by activists, economists, and political scientists. Whether you’re talking about equal pay or universal voting, egalitarianism is the language of leveling the field.
(adjective) Noisy, unruly, and difficult to control; stubbornly resistant to restraint or discipline.
The obstreperous crowd refused to disperse despite three separate announcements, their noise and defiance rising with every attempt to restore order.
Obstreperous derives from the Latin obstreperus, meaning “clamorous” or “noisy,” built from ob- (“against”) and strepere (“to make a noise” or “to rattle”). The root strepere is also the ancestor of strep in streptococcus — both words carrying the sense of something loud and disruptive making itself impossible to ignore. It entered English in the early 17th century, immediately acquiring its dual sense of both physical noisiness and the kind of willful, uncontainable defiance that produces it.