granarchist

English

Etymology

Blend of gran (“grandmother”) +‎ anarchist.

Noun

Early anarchist activist Emma Goldman (1869-1940) at a rally in 1916.

granarchist (plural granarchists)

1. (UK, informal) An older woman who espouses radical or militant political views.
   • 2006 May 5, “Dover And Out: They Think It's All Dover...It Is Now”, in Weekly SchNEWs, Brighton, England, page 1:

     The anti-live exports campaigns saw animal rights move out of the anarcho-punk ghetto and become a street movement which ranged across generations (the so-called granarchists with their eldritch scream of “Eeeevil”).

   • 2017, "Obituary: Joan Court", Viva!Life, Spring 2017, page 33:

     Joan used her advancing age to her advantage with the media and as one of Cambridge's wonderfully infamous 'granarchists', she staged sit-ins, hunger strikes and chained herself to #railings.

   • 2020, Fahim Amir, Being and Swine: The End of Nature (As We Knew It), unnumbered page:

     But what if feeding pigeons reveals contours of a large-scale affective militancy among older people in the public space? When as "granarchists" they pursue their publicly condemned practice of feeding the pigeons, old women really do take on joggers, park wardens, and the like.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:granarchist.