propaganda
Meanings
- Agitation, publicity, public communication aimed at influencing an audience and furthering an agenda.
- The propagation of the faith by the Catholic Church by means of missionary work etc.
- Such communication specifically when it is biased, misleading, or provoking mainly emotional responses.
- plural of propagandum
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *per-der.? Proto-Indo-European *per-der.? Proto-Indo-European *pér Proto-Indo-European *-o Proto-Indo-European *pró Proto-Indo-European *pro- Proto-Italic *pro- Latin prō- Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ǵ- Latin prōpāgō Latin prōpāgandus New Latin prōpāgandader. English propaganda From New Latin prōpāganda, short for Congregātiō dē Prōpāgandā Fidē (“a committee of cardinals established in 1622 by Gregory XV to supervise foreign missions”, literally “congregation for propagating the faith”), and properly the ablative feminine gerundive of Latin prōpāgō (“propagate”). Once the word had been detached from the phrase from which it originated, it could be reinterpreted as a neuter plural gerundive, meaning "things to be propagated"; compare agenda. Modern political sense dates from World War I, not originally pejorative.