"dot or feather" meaning in All languages combined

See dot or feather on Wiktionary

Phrase [English]

Etymology: A reference to the bindi and the feathered war bonnet. First attested in a 1993 Vanity Fair article, where it is attributed to Gita Mehta. Head templates: {{head|en|phrase|head=dot or feather?}} dot or feather?
  1. (US, offensive) Used to inquire whether a person described as "Indian" is a Native American or from the Indian subcontinent. Wikipedia link: Gita Mehta Tags: US, offensive Synonyms: red dot or feather
{
  "etymology_text": "A reference to the bindi and the feathered war bonnet. First attested in a 1993 Vanity Fair article, where it is attributed to Gita Mehta.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase",
        "head": "dot or feather?"
      },
      "expansion": "dot or feather?",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English coordinated pairs",
          "parents": [
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        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1993 May, Joan Juliet Buck, “A Mehta of Style”, in Vanity Fair, page 162:",
          "text": "Oddly, the only bons mots that this crowd can recall all have to do with India: Kenneth Jay Lane cites her “Indian? Dot or feather?” and others come up with puns about Chutney Marys and Chutney Miras or quick jokes about pujas.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used to inquire whether a person described as \"Indian\" is a Native American or from the Indian subcontinent."
      ],
      "id": "en-dot_or_feather-en-phrase-~~ZP735E",
      "links": [
        [
          "Indian",
          "Indian#English"
        ],
        [
          "Native American",
          "Native American#English"
        ],
        [
          "Indian subcontinent",
          "Indian subcontinent#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, offensive) Used to inquire whether a person described as \"Indian\" is a Native American or from the Indian subcontinent."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "red dot or feather"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "offensive"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Gita Mehta"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "dot or feather"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "A reference to the bindi and the feathered war bonnet. First attested in a 1993 Vanity Fair article, where it is attributed to Gita Mehta.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase",
        "head": "dot or feather?"
      },
      "expansion": "dot or feather?",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English coordinated pairs",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
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        "English offensive terms",
        "English phrases",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1993 May, Joan Juliet Buck, “A Mehta of Style”, in Vanity Fair, page 162:",
          "text": "Oddly, the only bons mots that this crowd can recall all have to do with India: Kenneth Jay Lane cites her “Indian? Dot or feather?” and others come up with puns about Chutney Marys and Chutney Miras or quick jokes about pujas.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used to inquire whether a person described as \"Indian\" is a Native American or from the Indian subcontinent."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
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        ],
        [
          "Native American",
          "Native American#English"
        ],
        [
          "Indian subcontinent",
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        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, offensive) Used to inquire whether a person described as \"Indian\" is a Native American or from the Indian subcontinent."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "offensive"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Gita Mehta"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "red dot or feather"
    }
  ],
  "word": "dot or feather"
}

Download raw JSONL data for dot or feather meaning in All languages combined (1.5kB)

{
  "called_from": "form_descriptions/1089",
  "msg": "suspicious unhandled suffix in English: 'red dot or feather', originally 'red dot or feather'",
  "path": [
    "dot or feather"
  ],
  "section": "English",
  "subsection": "",
  "title": "dot or feather",
  "trace": ""
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-18 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (e4a2c88 and 4230888). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.