[a. F. chauvinisme, orig. ‘idolatrie napoléonienne’ La Rousse.] Exaggerated patriotism of a bellicose sort; blind enthusiasm for national glory or military ascendancy; the French quality that finds its parallel in British ‘Jingoism.’
1870. Pall Mall Gaz., 27 Sept., 10/1. What the French may have contributed to the progress of culture within the last twenty years is nothing in comparison to the dangers caused within the same space of time by Chauvinism.
1882. Spectator, 16 Sept., 1186. Throughout Southern Europe, including France, the journalists are much more inclined to chauvinism than the people are.
1883. American, VII. 156. Educated men are supposed to see the difference between patriotism and Chauvinism.
So Chauvinist, Chauvinistic a.
1870. Pall Mall Gaz., 3 Oct., 10/1. ‘Là où Rhin nous quitte, le danger commence,’ said Lavalée in his chauvinistic work on the frontiers of France.
1877. D. M. Wallace, Russia, xxvi. 411. Among the extreme Chauvinists.
1883. D. C. Boulger, in Fortn. Rev., China & For. Powers, XXXIII. 812/2. Even the most chauvinist of Manchu statesmen will seek to kill, as the man in the fable did, the goose by prohibiting foreign trade.
1885. Athenæum, 17 Oct., 504/3. The curious Chauvinistic character taken by German patriotism.
