BharatNotes Jacobin
noun; also adjectiveUsage in a UPSC answer
Critics of an overweening Union government often invoke the spectre of Jacobin centralism, arguing that the steady erosion of States' fiscal autonomy betrays the cooperative-federal spirit that the Constitution sought to entrench.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Word Family
Jacobinism (n), Jacobinical (adj), Jacobinist (n), Jacobinize (v)
Root
French Jacobin = Dominican friar; from Medieval Latin Jacobīnus, from Jacobus = James (Saint-Jacques)
Etymology
From French Jacobin, from Medieval Latin Jacobīnus (a Dominican friar), because the Club met in the former Dominican convent on the Rue Saint-Honore in Paris; the Dominican order was named after the Church of Saint-Jacques (St. James) in Paris.
Memory Hook
Think of JACOB + IN: the radical revolutionaries who met "in" the Saint-JACQUES (Jacob) convent in Paris, ready to overturn the old order.
Tip: press Alt+S to hear pronunciation
