TOTALITARIAN

I. adjective Etymology: Italian totalitario, from totalità totality Date: 1926 1. of or relating to centralized control by an autocratic leader or hierarchy ; authoritarian , dictatorial , of or relating to a political regime based on subordination of the individual to the state and strict control of all aspects of the life and productive capacity of the nation especially by coercive measures (as censorship and terrorism), 2. advocating or characteristic of ~ism, completely regulated by the state especially as an aid to national mobilization in an emergency, exercising autocratic powers ; tending toward monopoly, II. noun Date: circa 1934 an advocate or practitioner of ~ism