Refine this word faster
Samizdat
Definitions
- 1 The secret copying and sharing of illegal publications, chiefly in the Soviet Union; underground publishing and its publications. attributive, often, uncountable
"[page 1] In a general sense any copy of a document which has been produced in the Soviet Union outside the chain of state publishing houses may be referred to as samizdat. […] [page 3] This term is modeled on the shortened form—gosizdat—of State Publishing House (Gosudarstvennoe Izdatel'stvo). […] According to Julius Telesin, a Russian writer who emigrated to Israel in 1970, the word samizdat occurs first in the late fifties when a Moscow poet, exasperated with the operation of the censorship system, bound together the typewritten sheets of his poems and wrote Samsebiaizdate ("Publishing House for Oneself") in the place where the name of the publishing house would normally appear. He also used the term samizdat with the same meaning but, as Telesin observes, samizdat ("self-publishing house") subsequently acquired a wider meaning."
- 2 a system of clandestine printing and distribution of dissident or banned literature wordnet
- 3 A samizdat publication. countable
"In Poland, some samizdats are different: they are professionally produced and are sold for money. But the money that these Polish consumers pay for these illegal samizdats is not dissipated in the domain of individual or corporate profits, nor does it help support the government and its publishing monopoly. The money acquired through sales is used for – and this the consumer is well aware of – the advancement of the Solidarity movement."
Etymology
Borrowed from Russian самизда́т (samizdát, “self-publishing”), from сам (sam, “self”) + изда́т (izdát), an abbreviation of изда́тельство (izdátelʹstvo, “publishing house, publishing”) (compare Russian Госизда́т (Gosizdát, “State Publisher”)).
See also for "samizdat"
Next best steps
Mini challenge
Unscramble this word: samizdat