John Goodwyn Barmby is credited with the first use of communism in English, around 1840.
Restif would go on to use the term frequently in his writing and was the first to describe communism as a form of government. In 1793, Restif first used communisme to describe a social order based on egalitarianism and the common ownership of property. One of the first uses of the word in its modern sense is in a letter sent by Victor d'Hupay to Restif de la Bretonne around 1785, in which d'Hupay describes himself as an auteur communiste ("communist author"). Communism came to be primarily associated with Marxism, most specifically embodied in The Communist Manifesto, which proposed a particular type of communism. Prior to becoming associated with its more modern conception of an economic and political organization, it was initially used in designating various social situations. Communism may be interpreted as "the state of being of or for the community" this semantic constitution has led to numerous usages of the word in its evolution. Semantically, communis can be translated to "of or for the community", while isme is a suffix that indicates the abstraction into a state, condition, action, or doctrine.
Communism includes a variety of schools of thought which broadly include Marxism, Leninism, and libertarian communism as well as the political ideologies grouped around both, all of which share the analysis that the current order of society stems from capitalism, its economic system and mode of production, namely that in this system there are two major social classes, the relationship between these two classes is exploitative, and that this situation can only ultimately be resolved through a social revolution. Variants of communism have been developed throughout history, including anarcho-communism and Marxist schools of thought. Communists agree on the withering away of the state but disagree on the means to this end, reflecting a distinction between a more libertarian approach of communization, revolutionary spontaneity, and workers' self-management, and a more vanguardist or Communist party-driven approach through the development of a constitutional socialist state. Communism is a specific, yet distinct, form of socialism. Communism (from Latin communis, 'common, universal') is a philosophical, social, political, and economic ideology and movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, namely a socioeconomic order structured upon the ideas of common ownership of the means of production and the absence of social classes, money, and the state.