- republican (adj.)
- 1712, "belonging to a republic," from republic + -an (see -ian). In noun sense of "one who favors a republic," it is recorded from 1690s; and in sense of a member of a specific U.S. political party (the Anti-Federalists) from 1782, though this was not the ancestor of the modern U.S. Republican Party, which dates from 1854. Republicrat in U.S. political jargon usually meaning "moderate," is attested from 1940.