Use of "Citizen" Sarcastically

A key element of the French Revolution, was abolishment of titles. "Subjects" were subjects of the crown no more. Everyone therefore was a "Citizen" (in French, Citoyen or Citoyenne.) This promoted the principle of Equality (l’Egalité.)

In the United States, after our own revolutionary war, particularly the Democrat-Republicans used the term. Federalists would call each other "Citizen" as a half-mocking jest, directed at the republicans.

Sources

• Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution (Paperback)

by Simon Schama new York, 1989.

• The French Revolution and the Invention of Citizenship

William Rogers Brubaker French Politics and Society Vol. 7, No. 3, Commemorating the French Revolution (Summer 1989), pp. 30-49