Etymology

contrabureaucratic

Today it means: Self-consciously rejecting bureaucracy and pursuing alternative modes of organisation. Full definition →

English bureaucratic ← French bureaucratique ← Ancient Greek κρᾰ́τος (krắtos)
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*ḱe?
  2. Proto-Indo-European*ḱóm
  3. Proto-Italic*kom
  4. Proto-Italic*kom-
  5. Proto-Italic*komteros
  6. Proto-Italic*komterād
  7. Latincontrā
  8. Englishcontra-
  9. Proto-Indo-European*péh₂wr̥
  10. Proto-Hellenic*pāwər
  11. Ancient Greekπῦρ (pûr)
  12. Ancient Greekπῠρρός (pŭrrhós)
  13. Latinburrus
  14. Latinburra
  15. Old French*bure
  16. Old Frenchburel
  17. Frenchbureau
  18. Proto-Indo-European*kret-
  19. Ancient Greekκρᾰ́τος (krắtos)
  20. Frenchbureaucratie
  21. Frenchbureaucrate
  22. Frenchbureaucratie
  23. Frenchbureaucratique
  24. Englishbureaucratic
  25. English todaycontrabureaucratic

Coined by Joyce Rothschild-Whitt in 1979, from contra- + bureaucratic.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.