This is the best summary I could come up with:

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I saw this tweet the other day, and it was one of those things that seems jarring and surprising at first, but actually makes a lot of sense when you think about it.

1921, from Italian partito nazionale fascista, the anti-communist political movement organized 1919 under Benito Mussolini (1883-1945); from Italian fascio “group, association,” literally “bundle,” from Latin fasces (see fasces).

Fasci “groups of men organized for political purposes” had been a feature of Sicily since c. 1895, and the 20c.

totalitarian sense probably came directly from this but was influenced by the historical Roman fasces, which became the party symbol.

), from Proto-Italic *faski- “bundle,” perhaps from PIE *bhasko- “band, bundle” (source also of Middle Irish basc “neckband,” Welsh baich “load, burden,” perhaps also Old English bæst “inner bark of the linden tree”).

Hence in Latin it also meant, figuratively, “high office, supreme power.”

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The original article contains 319 words, the summary contains 145 words. Saved 55%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!