According to the dictionary,
communistic
of, characteristic of, or relating to communism
communist
of, characterized by, favouring, or relating to communism; communistic
I am struggling to understand the difference between these 2 adjectives, and why communist is much more prevalent, and why communistic, on the other hand, is rarely used.
Communist is a noun and the suffix -ist indicates a person, so can the adjective be interpreted as "of a communist", or "belonging to a communist"? If so, does communistic carry the same connotation?
I am also under the impression that communistic is softer/broader than communist. For example, I interpret "a communistic idea" as "an idea somewhat connected to communism", but "a communist idea" as "an idea strictly based on communism". Does it make sense?
I am also wondering whether is a proper adjective, or if it's simply a noun used attributively.
Until very recently, I thought communistic is the only proper adjective describing communism (because -ic seemed the only appropriate suffix). How common is it to use the -ist adjective when there are more proper adjectival forms available (ending with -ic, -ical)? For example, altruist or egoist are never adjectives, though they similarly could describe altruism and egotism.
Thank you!