Dissident
/ˈdɪs.ɪ.dənt/noun
A person who opposes official policy, especially that of an authoritarian state.
Did you know?Dissident comes from the same Latin root as words for “sit,” so its earliest force was about being positioned outside the group, not yet about politics at all.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*sed-
“to sit”
Latin
Latin
sedere
“to sit”
Latin
Latin
dissidēns
“sitting apart; disagreeing, dissenting”
Late Latin
Latin
dissidentem
“differing; disagreeing”
16th Century
English
dissident
“one who disagrees or dissents from an established authority or doctrine”
Modern English
English
dissident
“a person who opposes official policy, especially that of an authoritarian state”