FUNDIE

noun Also written fundy or (in discussions of German Green Party politics) Fundi (Environment) (Politics) In colloquial use: a fundamentalist; especially either a religious fundamentalist or a member of a radical branch of the green movement, a 'deep' green. Etymology: Formed by adding the suffix -ie to the first four letters of fundamentalist; the spelling Fundi reflects borrowing from the German slang name of the radical wing of the German Green Party. History and Usage: A nickname which belongs to the political debates of the early eighties, when the Moral Majority and other fundamentalist Christian groups in the US and the Greens in Germany became a political force to be reckoned with. In the green sense, fundie has its origins in the arguments from 1985 onwards between the German Greens' realo wing, who were prepared to take a normal co-operative approach to parliamentary life, and the more radical fundamentalists, who did not wish to co-operate with other parties and favoured extreme measures to solve environmental problems. The Fundies are not a serious political force and their current hero is not a serious political candidate. New York Times 7 Mar. 1988, section A, p. 19 The fundies are the purists who believe the only way to save the Earth is to dismantle industry. Daily Telegraph 20 Sept. 1989, p. 15