What does prohibitionist mean?
A prohibitionist is someone who supports prohibition: a policy that forbids a particular activity. The best-known historical application of the term refers to advocates of restricting or banning alcohol, often through local option laws, temperance organizations, and campaigns for state or national prohibition. These reformers presented alcohol regulation as a matter of morality, public health, family welfare, and industrial discipline. Although the term is now chiefly historical, it can still describe a person who favors a strict ban on drugs, gambling, advertising, or another controversial activity. In such broader contexts, it usually suggests an active campaigner rather than someone who merely prefers stricter regulation. The word also appears in discussions of the temperance movement, the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment in the United States, and comparable prohibition campaigns elsewhere. Its specialized historical meaning makes it more precise than the general term supporter while distinguishing an advocate of prohibition from the prohibition itself.
A person who supports prohibition, especially of the manufacture, sale, or consumption of alcohol.
"Prohibitionists persuaded the town council to close its saloons."
The historical sense is especially common in accounts of the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century temperance movement.
Relating to prohibitionists or to a policy of prohibition.
"The newspaper opposed the prohibitionist movement in the region."
This attributive use is now chiefly historical, especially in references to anti-alcohol campaigns.
The regular plural is used for individual advocates of prohibition.
"The prohibitionists presented their campaign to the state legislature."
Before nationwide Prohibition, thousands of local prohibitionists fought alcohol sales one town at a time; Maine became the first U.S. state to prohibit alcohol sales in 1851.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does prohibitionist come from?
The word was formed in the early nineteenth century by adding the suffix -ist to prohibition, a noun derived from the Latin verb prohibere, meaning “to forbid” or “to prevent.” Prohibere combines the prefix pro-, meaning “before” or “in front of,” with habere, “to hold,” reflecting the original sense of holding something back. The derived term initially became especially prominent during the temperance and anti-alcohol movements of the nineteenth century.
Related word forms
How prohibitionist is actually used
In contemporary British and American English, the word most often refers historically or politically to an advocate of alcohol prohibition. In broader or newer usage, it can mean anyone who favors prohibiting a practice, though this may sound less natural than prohibitionist in older historical contexts.
Easily confused with prohibitionist
A prohibitionist is a person who supports prohibition, whereas prohibition is the policy or practice of forbidding something.