Patriotism
Overview
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography
and philosophy
. In a generalized sense applicable to all countries and peoples, patriotism is a devotion to one's country.
It is a related sentiment to nationalism
.
The English term patriot is first attested in the Elizabethan era
, via Middle French from Late Latin
(6th century) patriota "countryman", ultimately from Greek
πατριώτης (patriōtēs) "countryman", from πατρίς, "fatherland".
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
and philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
. In a generalized sense applicable to all countries and peoples, patriotism is a devotion to one's country.
It is a related sentiment to nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
.
The English term patriot is first attested in the Elizabethan era
Elizabethan era
The Elizabethan era was the epoch in English history of Queen Elizabeth I's reign . Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history...
, via Middle French from Late Latin
Late Latin
Late Latin is the scholarly name for the written Latin of Late Antiquity. The English dictionary definition of Late Latin dates this period from the 3rd to the 6th centuries AD extending in Spain to the 7th. This somewhat ambiguously defined period fits between Classical Latin and Medieval Latin...
(6th century) patriota "countryman", ultimately from Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
πατριώτης (patriōtēs) "countryman", from πατρίς, "fatherland".
Quotations
Patriotism is an ephemeral motive that scarcely ever outlasts the particular threat to society that aroused it.
Denis Diderot, Observations on the Drawing Up of Laws (written in 1774 for Catherine the Great; published 1921)
Leo Tolstoy [...] defines patriotism as the principle that will justify the training of wholesale murderers.
Emma Goldman in a speech titled What is patriotism? delivered in 1908
That is a true sentiment which makes us feel that we do not love our country less, but more, because we have laid up in our minds the knowledge of other lands and other institutions and other races, and have had enkindled afresh within us the instinct of a common humanity, and of the universal beneficence of the Creator.
Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 442.