reactionary

Meanings

Adjective

• Politically favoring a return to a golden age of the past.
• Of, pertaining to, participating in or inducing a chemical reaction.
• In reaction to, as a result of.

Noun

• One who is opposed to change and wants to reverse it.
• One who is very conservative.

Related

Opposite words

• nonreactionary

Origin

• From French réactionnaire. Used in the time of the French revolution to refer to a person opposing the revolution; as in a person favoring a reaction to the revolution. First known usage in English in a translation of Lazare Carnot's letter on the Conspiracy of the 18th Fructidor published in London, 1799.