Etymology

capitalist roader

cap·i·tal·ist road·er

Today it means: One (especially a Chinese Communist Party official) who bows to pressure from bourgeois forces and attempts to pull the Cultural Revolution in a capitalist direction. Full definition →

First used 1960sChinese 走資派 /走资派
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The story

  1. Chinese · calque of走資派 /走资派
  2. English todaycapitalist roader

From capitalist + road (figurative) + -er (suffix denoting a person associated with or supporting a particular doctrine, theory, or political movement), as a calque of Chinese 走資派 /走资派 (zǒuzīpài, literally “one who takes the capitalist road”), a contraction of 走資本主義道路(的)當權派 /走资本主义道路(的)当权派 (zǒu zīběnzhǔyì dàolù (de) dāngquánpài, “those in power who take the capitalist road”), first used in Chinese Communist Party literature in 1965.

First known use, by meaning

  • from 1960s One (especially a Chinese Communist Party official) who bows to pressure from bourgeois forces and attempts to pull the Cultural Revolution in a capitalist direction.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.