DCHP-2

sovereignist sovereigntist, souverainiste DCHP-2 (October 2016)

• 1 adj. — Politics, French relations

  supporting Quebec independence or self-government.

  Type: 1. Origin — Sovereignist is used as an adjective attributively ("A sovereignist thinker") and predicatively ("She is sovereignist in her leanings"). Sovereignist is an anglicized version of the French adjective and was first used in English in Canada (see OED-3, s.v. "sovereignist"). Souverainiste, a direct borrowing from the French, is also used as a minority form (see, e.g. the 1979 quotation).
  See also COD-2, s.v. "sovereignist", which is marked "Cdn", and OED-3, s.v. "sovereignist"(A), which is marked "orig. and chiefly Canad".

  See also: separatist ((adj.))  separation  sovereignty-association  Rest of Canada  Waffle  War Measures Act  sovereignty (meaning 1)  

  • The term sovereignist denotes the same thing as separatist, but the connotations are radically different. For a Canadian from outside Quebec, a move for independence would separate a vital part of the country from the Rest of Canada, while for a sovereignist, the move would allow Quebec to free herself from a colonial relationship dating from the British Conquest of 1759. Given that most people in Canada have a strong opinions on the issue, which term is used conveys one's political position.

• 2 n. — Politics, French relations

  a supporter of self-government for Quebec.

  Type: 1. Origin — The historical record, both in the BCE and in the larger databases, suggests that the noun appears to have been derived from the adjectival uses, which is a somewhat unusual trajectory. Note that souverainiste remains a minority form (see, e.g. the 2012 quotation). Internet domain searches indicate that the term is most prevalent in Canada (see Chart 1).
  See also COD-2, s.v. "sovereignist", which is marked "Cdn".

  See also: separatist ((n.))