Why is it called Communism

[EvilRedGuy]

I understand why Anarchism is called Anarchism and Socialism for Socialism. But does Communism come from the word "community" or "commune"? Just a little question.

[Vampire Lobster]

If I recall correctly, it comes from the Latin term communis, meaning pretty much something that is shared, public, or common. Which is the root word for both commune and community, anyways.

[anticap]

The Online Etymology Dictionary (http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=communism) says it's from the French communisme, the root of which is the French commun, from the Old French comun.

[chegitz guevara]

French cities are communes. Communism is the politics of the urban proletariat.

[AK]

I think it has something to do with the fact that the means of production are to be held in common.

[mikelepore]

Marx and Engels prefered the word "socialist", but chose the word "communist" because it was a word that wasn't already strongly associated with another movement.

"... when it was written, we could not have called it a socialist manifesto. By Socialists, in 1847, were understood, on the one hand the adherents of the various Utopian systems: Owenites in England, Fourierists in France...."

--- Engels' 1888 preface to the Communist Manifesto

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/preface.htm

[ContrarianLemming]

5 replies, 5 conflicting answers

revleft in a nutshell

[Rousedruminations]

Commune, community, collectiveness-- A community can also be hostile and segregated which is why solidarity and selfness in helping one another as brothers and sisters despite race, background is needed.

[AK]

5 conflicting answers
Not really. These two answers are pretty similar:

If I recall correctly, it comes from the Latin term communis, meaning pretty much something that is shared, public, or common. Which is the root word for both commune and community, anyways.

I think it has something to do with the fact that the means of production are to be held in common.
And so are these:

The Online Etymology Dictionary (http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=communism) says it's from the French communisme, the root of which is the French commun, from the Old French comun.

French cities are communes. Communism is the politics of the urban proletariat.

[Vampire Lobster]

They are hardly conflicting, as the Latin communis happens to be the root word for the Old French comun, which, in the other hand, is the root word for English common. So yeah, most of the answers (with the exception of chegitz) in this thread give pretty much precisely the same meaning for the term communism, anyways, even though there doesn't seem to be precise consensus on which language it was actually borrowed from. That should be irrelevant though, unless you happen to be an ethymology junky, and I'm not sure whether this forum is best for finding that kind of information.