agitprop

noun ag·it·prop \ ˈa-jət-ˌpräp \

|Updated on: 10 Aug 2018

Definition of agitprop

: propaganda; especially : political propaganda promulgated chiefly in literature, drama, music, or art

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agitprop

adjective

Recent Examples of agitprop from the Web

Earlier that year, audiences had fallen hard for the ancien-régime agitprop of Downton Abbey, which premiered in January.

— heather souvaine horn, The New Republic, "Donald Trump, Meghan Markle, and America’s enduring obsession with the British royals," 12 July 2018
It’s hard to give a good performance in a piece of agitprop: Heavy-duty ideas have a way of steamrolling actual human beings.

— stephanie zacharek, Time, "Review: Sorry to Bother You May Be the Most Culturally Relevant Movie of the Year," 5 July 2018
Now the idea of California being the source of all evil is hardly novel in the annals of conservative agitprop, at least since the GOP lost its grip on the state in the 21st century.

— ed kilgore, Daily Intelligencer, "Trump’s Trip to California Aims to Displease," 8 Mar. 2018
Far from being agitprop provocateurs, their ingenuity was driven strictly by the artistic need to resolve dramatic problems.

— The Economist, "The great second act of Rodgers and Hammerstein," 15 Mar. 2018
Every ruling class needs propaganda, and Ready Player One is agitprop for the geek gods that reign on the Internet.

— ryan smith, Chicago Reader, "Arts / Small Screen / The Internet By villainizing nerdy fanboys, Black Mirror's Star Trek parody goes where no show has gone before," 8 Jan. 2018
And the percentage of people and organizations with the time, persistence and skill to ferret out the truth is not high — raising the danger that attitudes will be formed, and actions taken, under the influence of agitprop.

— New York Times, "The 9.17 Issue," 29 Sep. 2017
There’s also more than a telepathic touch of an artist Ms. Schutz doesn’t cite, the Depression-era agitprop painter, William Gropper.

— peter plagens, WSJ, "‘Dana Schutz’ Review: Controversy and Complexity," 2 Aug. 2017
There remains a distinct whiff of agitprop in Bestia’s wine program, which suggests that Ibsen is drawing from the legacy, or perhaps the residual energy, of Maxwell Leer, the restaurant’s antic founding wine director.

— patrick comiskey, latimes.com, "The wine program at Bestia keeps getting weirder, with white wines leading the way," 3 Aug. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'agitprop.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of agitprop

borrowed from Russian Agitprop, shortened from Agitacionnopropagandistskij otdel "Agitation-Propaganda Section (of the Central Committee, or a local committee, of the Communist Party)"; later used for the head of such a section, or in compound names of political education organs, as agitpropbrigada "agitation-propaganda brigade"

Note: Russian agitpróp was probably first used in the names of state organs, then generalized as a shortening of agitatsiya i propaganda "agitation and propaganda," though the chronology is uncertain. In the latter sense well-known in Russian at least from the time of Vladimir Mayakovsky's poem Vo ves' golos (1928-30), containing the line "i mne agitprop v zubakh navyaz" ("and I was sick and tired of agitprop," literally, "and agitprop stuck in my teeth").

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1925

in the meaning defined above

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