Talk:refusenik

Person refused or person who refuses?
The current definition #2 is ambiguous:


 * A person characterized by a particular refusal (especially one related to human rights.)

What relationship is meant by "characterised"?

Is it any person who has been refused? That would make sense because the term comes from Soviet Jews who were refused exit visas in the old USSR.

Or is it any person who refuses to do something? That would make sense because it's how I've heard the term used.

Or do both meanings correctly exist? If so, this ambiguous definition should be replaced by two definitions. Gronky 13:37, 6 November 2011 (UTC)


 * The only instances of "person who was refused" that I could find were the sense specifically pertaining to being refused permission to emigrate from the Soviet bloc. The other examples I could find were all of people refusing to do things, e.g. refusing to be in a military, refusing to get vaccinated, refusing to have a nationality (as in the Beckett Ireland/France quote), etc. - -sche (discuss) 03:15, 21 May 2021 (UTC)