doctrinaire

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The Word of the Day for March 17 is:

doctrinaire   \dahk-truh-NAIR\   adjective 
     : attempting to put into effect an abstract doctrine or 
theory with little or no regard for practical difficulties : dogmatic

Example sentence:
     Some of his colleagues disdained his doctrinaire 
acceptance of socialist theory. 

Did you know?
     "Doctrinaire" didn't start out as a critical word. In post-
revolutionary France, a group who favored constitutional 
monarchy called themselves Doctrinaires. "Doctrine" in French, 
as in English, is a word for the principles on which a 
government is based; it is ultimately from Latin "doctrina,"
meaning "teaching" or "instruction." But both ultraroyalists 
and revolutionists strongly derided any doctrine of reconciling 
royalty and representation as utterly impracticable, and they 
resented the Doctrinaires' influence over Louis XVIII. 
So "doctrinaire" became an adjective in French, and "there 
adhered to it some indescribable tincture of unpopularity which 
was totally indelible" (_Blanc's History of ten years 1830-40_, 
translated by Walter K. Kelly in 1848). Within 20 
years "doctrinaire" had also become the English adjective we 
have today.