Pronounced: VAI-dih-muss, noun
Notes: It looks Latin to me, but I don’t know this word
Yesterday’s word
The word Bonapartism means “a policy supporting dictatorial rule usually by a leader who has ostensibly received a popular mandate”
First usage
Our word came into English in the early 1800s
Background / Comments
You may have thought (as did I) that our word referred to the support of Napolean Bonaparte (Napolean I), and it is named after him. The year that our word came into English was also the year that Napolean I was defeated at Waterloo. It was the same year that he was forced from power, and exiled. Incidentally, the word ‘waterloo’ (a decisive defeat) came into English the following year.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 