pre-Columbian

since pre-Columbian times

unknown in Europe in pre-Columbian times

(historical) Before the voyages of Christopher Columbus of the 1490s which introduced greatly widened contacts between Eurasia and the Americas.

pre-Columbian cultures

pre-Columbian civilizations

In fact, the dating of pre-Columbian Andean cultures was largely a matter of guesswork.

1961, Margaret A. Towle, The Ethnobotany of Pre-Columbian Peru, Transaction Publishers, →ISBN, page 2:

Boys trained to be warriors, but why did pre-Columbian peoples battle one another?

2010, Marylou Kjelle, In Pre-Columbian America, Mitchell Lane Publishers, Inc., →ISBN, page 41:

Christopher Columbus
w:Christopher Columbus

Referring to the cultures of the Americas before the European influence, specifically to the era before the continent was visited by Christopher Columbus.


metropolis

en-noun

metropolis (plural metropolises or metropoleis or metropoles or metropolizes or metropoli or (obsolete) metropolisses or (obsolete) metropolis's)

metropolises (plural)
metropoleis (plural)
metropoles (plural)
metropolizes (plural)
metropoli (plural)
metropolisses (obsolete plural)
metropolis's (obsolete plural)

Borrowed from Late Latin mētropolis, from Ancient Greek μητρόπολις (mētrópolis, “mother city”), from μήτηρ (mḗtēr, “mother”) + πόλις (pólis, “city (state)”). By surface analysis, metro- + -polis. Doublet of metropole.

der

Colonies certainly did not become "clones" of their metropolises, but it is equally false that their colonial heritages were not influenced by the organization of the metropolises.

2010, James Mahoney, Colonialism and Postcolonial Development: Spanish America in Comparative Perspective:

(history, especially Ancient Greece) The mother (founding) polis (city state) of a colony.

Holonym: metropolitan area

Coordinate term: capital city

An immense metropolis, like London, is calculated to make men selfish and uninteresting.

1819, Washington Irving, The Sketch Book, Rural Life in England:

[I]t would not be very much less absurd for someone to write about New York City after having spent only a few years or a few decades in this metropolis of inexhaustible adventure, of terrifying emotional fecundity, of uncapturable character.

1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist, page 52:

Love is dead in metropolis / All contact through glove or partition

1983, “Sleeper in Metropolis”, in Changing Places, performed by Anne Clark:

They call me the Hiphopopotamus / Flows that glow like phosphorous / Popping off the top of this esophagus / Rocking this metropolis

2008, “Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros”, performed by Flight of the Conchords:

A large, busy city, especially as the main city in an area or country or as distinguished from surrounding rural areas.

центр

делово́й, культу́рный

(Orthodox Christianity) The see of a metropolitan bishop, ranking above its suffragan diocesan bishops.

мітрапо́лія

(ecology) A generic focus in the distribution of plants or animals.


colony

Tok Pisin: koloni

→ Tokelauan: kolone

From Latin colōnia (“colony”), from colōnus (“farmer; colonist”), from colō (“till, cultivate, worship”), from earlier *quelō, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷel- (“to move; to turn (around)”).


colonize

en-verb

colonize (third-person singular simple present colonizes, present participle colonizing, simple past and past participle colonized)

colonizes (present singular third-person)
colonizing (participle present)
colonized (participle past)
colonized (past)

(transitive) To settle (a place) with colonists, and hence make (a place) into a colony.

When you are colonized by dangerous bacteria their presence in your body does no damage. You become a reservoir for those little stinkers.

2011, Steven Z. Kussin, Doctor, Your Patient Will See You Now, page 241:

(transitive) To settle (a group of people, a species, or the like) in a place as a colony.

(intransitive) To begin a colony or colonies.

2010, Daisy Hernandez, Bushra Rehman, Colonize This!: Young Women of Color on Today's Feminism, →ISBN:

What disservice would be done if issues regarding sexualities in organisations were side-lined by a heteronormative impetus to colonise queer theory?

2011, Key Concepts in Critical Management Studies, →ISBN:

For slavery aimed not only to colonize black women's bodies, sex, and sexuality, to undermine her, it sought to subvert and destroy any authentic relationship between black women and black men as well as among black women themselves.

2015, Kwok Pui-Lan, Laura E. Donaldson, Postcolonialism, Feminism and Religious Discourse, →ISBN:

[…] suggesting that organisational discourses of heteronormativity cannot fully colonise gay sexualities and genders.

2016, Nick Rumens, Queer Company: The Role and Meaning of Friendship in Gay Men's Work, →ISBN:

The burden of judgment imposed by the politics of respectability can easily colonize black minds.

2017, Christopher J. Lebron, The Making of Black Lives Matter: A Brief History of an Idea, →ISBN:

To have our grief colonized to facilitate a racist political agenda was beyond offensive.

2017 June 13, One Year After Pulse, Don't You Dare Come for Any of Us (Lambda Legal)

These award-winning works of nature writing have extended and enhanced a genre that Jamie herself has criticised, describing it as “colonised by middle-class white men”.

2021 August 23, Libby Brooks, quoting Kathleen Jamie, “Scotland’s new makar Kathleen Jamie: ‘Poetry is at the heart of our culture’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(transitive, social sciences, by extension) To intrude into and take over (the autonomy, experience, social movement, etc, of a less powerful person or group); to commandeer or appropriate.


plantation

en-noun

plantation (countable and uncountable, plural plantations)

Borrowed from Middle French plantation, from Latin plantātiō (“planting, transplanting”), from plantātus (“planted”), the perfect passive participle of plantāre, + action noun suffix -tiō.

der

Plantation (settlement or colony)
plantation

Had I plantation of this Iſle my Lord.

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 7:

(historical) The importation of large numbers of workers and soldiers to displace the local population, such as in medieval Ireland and in the Americas; colonization.

planter

importation of people to displace local persons


colonial

en-adj

colonial (comparative more colonial, superlative most colonial)

more colonial (comparative)
most colonial (superlative)

Of or pertaining to the ideals of colonialism.

(US) Of or relating to the original Thirteen Colonies of the USA.

kolonial

US: of or relating to the original thirteen colonies of the USA


concession

en-noun

concession (usually uncountable, plural concessions)

From late Middle English concession, from Middle French concession, from Latin concessiō (“a grant, permission, conceding”), from concēdō.

der

A privilege granted by an authority, especially to conduct business on favorable terms within certain conditions and particularly:

A right to use land or an offshore area for a specific purpose, such as oil exploration.

toimilupa

(chiefly US) A right to operate a quasi-independent franchise of a larger company.

franchising-oikeus

(chiefly US) A right to operate a quasi-independent business within another's premises, as with concession stands.

franchise

a smaller business operating under another's aegis

(chiefly UK) A discounted price offered to certain classes of people, such as students or the elderly.


decolonization

en-noun

decolonization (countable and uncountable, plural decolonizations)

But what does decolonisation have to do with place names? Place names are the meeting points of history and geography that shape part of our identities.

2019, Nalini Mohabir, “Renaming the Cook Islands would be a vital step towards true independence”, in Guardian.:

(social sciences) The reverse of colonization, i.e. granting back autonomy to a group.


homestead

Ultimately from Old English hamstede through an unattested Middle English word. Cognate with German Heimstatt, Dutch heemstede and Swedish hemstad. By surface analysis, home + stead.

чифлик

He owned exactly six hundred and forty acres of what stretched outside his door; his own original homestead and timber claim, making three hundred and twenty acres, and the half-section adjoining, the homestead of a younger brother who had given up the fight, gone back to Chicago to work in a fancy bakery […]

1913, Willa Cather, chapter 2, in O Pioneers!, Part 1:

A house together with surrounding land and buildings, especially on a farm; the property comprising these.

(Canada, US) A parcel of land in the interior of North America, usually 160 acres, that was distributed to settlers from Europe or eastern North America under the Dominion Lands Act of 1870 in Canada or the Homestead Act of 1862 in the United States.


colonization

colonization (countable and uncountable, plural colonizations)


Columbus

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Columbus.wav

From Latin columbus (“a dove”). Doublet of Colombo. The verb is a reference to the Italian explorer.

Any of various cities, towns and villages in the United States:

A city, the county seat of Muscogee County, Georgia, with which it is consolidated.

A small city in Anoka County, Minnesota, previously a township.

Burlington County
Burlington County#English

An unincorporated community in Burlington County, New Jersey.

A tiny city in Burke County, North Dakota.

A small city in Columbia County and Dodge County, Wisconsin.


British Empire

Violence and racism were the reality of the colonial experience and no wonder that the sun never set on the British Empire because even God couldn't trust the English in the dark.

2015, Shashi Tharoor, "Britain Does Owe Reparations", 00:05:16

Two hundred and forty years have passed since the 1781 Yorktown Campaign, a campaign that was a decisive victory for the Continental Army and forced the British Empire to reach concessions with the 13 Colonies.

2021-2022 Winter, Matthew R. Prescott, John P. Ruedisueli, “The Relevance of the 1781 Yorktown Campaign”, in SAR Magazine, volume 116, number 3, Louisville, KY: Sons of the American Revolution, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 20, column 1:

In 1920, the British Empire covered over a quarter of the Earth's surface area.

(chiefly historical) The United Kingdom and its overseas dependencies and colonies.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office


Plymouth Rock

The traditionally accepted landing site of the Mayflower settlers to America in 1620, on the shore of Massachusetts.


Plymouth

From Plym + mouth, referring to the river's mouth.

A small rural community of Pictou County, Nova Scotia, Canada.

A small rural community of Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia, Canada.

A number of places in the United States:

A small city in Amador County, California.

A town in Litchfield County, Connecticut.

Litchfield County
Litchfield County#English

An unincorporated community in Orange County, Florida.

A village in Hancock County and McDonough County, Illinois.

McDonough County
McDonough County#English

A minor city in Cerro Gordo County, Iowa.

Cerro Gordo County
Cerro Gordo County#English

An unincorporated community in Lyon County, Kansas.

Penobscot County
Penobscot County#English

A sizable city in Hennepin County, Minnesota; suburb of Minneapolis.

A former settlement in Lowndes County, Mississippi.

An unincorporated community in Carroll County, Missouri.

A village in Jefferson County, Nebraska.

Jefferson County
Jefferson County#English

A town in Grafton County, New Hampshire.

A village in Huron County and Richland County, Ohio.

A borough of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.

Box Elder County
Box Elder County#English

A small town in Windsor County, Vermont.

An unincorporated community in Putnam County, West Virginia.

A town and city in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin.

Sheboygan County
Sheboygan County#English


Pilgrim

(historical, usually in the plural) A settler of the Plymouth Colony.


manifest destiny

Popularly attributed to newspaper editor John O'Sullivan (1813–1895). The phrase was first used primarily by Jackson Democrats in the 1840s to promote the annexation of much of what is now the Western United States.

昭昭天命

cultural belief in the 19th-century United States that American settlers were destined to expand across North America

United States of America
United States of America

The political doctrine or belief held by the United States of America, particularly during its expansion, that the nation was destined to expand toward the west.

The political doctrine or belief held by many citizens of the United States of America that their system is best, and the idea that all humans would like to become Americans.

The belief that God supports the expansion of the United States of America throughout the entire North American continent except Mexico.


manifest destiny

en-verb

manifest destiny (third-person singular simple present manifests destiny, present participle manifesting destiny, simple past and past participle manifested destiny)

manifests destiny (present singular third-person)
manifesting destiny (participle present)
manifested destiny (participle past)
manifested destiny (past)

The Homestead Acts allowed millions of settlers to populate unclaimed land and manifest destiny out on the frontier.

(informal) To exercise and realize manifest destiny; to enable the cultural and political expansion of the United States of America.


Mayflower

A historical ship that transported the Pilgrims to America in the year 1620.


neocolonialism

en-noun

neocolonialism (countable and uncountable, plural neocolonialisms)

/ˌniːəʊkəˈləʊnjəlɪzəm/

From neo- + colonialism, or neocolonial + -ism.

The control or domination by a powerful country over weaker ones (especially former colonies) by the use of economic pressure, political suppression and cultural dominance.

اِسْتِعْمَار جَدِيد

control or domination of one country by another


Thirteen Colonies

(historical) The thirteen British colonies that successfully revolted in 1775--1781, forming the nucleus of the United States of America. To wit: New Hampshire, Massachusetts (including present-day Maine), Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York (including present-day Vermont), New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia (including present-day West Virginia), North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.


colonizer

One who makes a group or place into a colony; one who establishes a colonial relationship.

One who establishes or joins a colony; a colonist.

One who colonizes:
One who intrudes and takes over.

Don't scare me like that, colonizer!

2018 January 29, Ryan Coogler, Joe Robert Cole, Black Panther, spoken by Shuri (Letitia Wright):

"Howard University is supposed to be a safe space for black people and we don't need you colonizers infiltrating it," said Charlemagne, radio personality and the co-host of The Breakfast Club.

2019 April 25, Dream McClinton, “Dog walkers at Howard University infringe on 'black Mecca', students say”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 2021-11-06:

"Disgusted isn't even close to a word for it," they wrote. "How?? how is this okay?? she was a REAL LITTLE GIRL — to do this her, to us, over and over again… i am just at a loss. disgusting. does she not deserve rest? reclamation? honor? you colonizers make me vom," she wrote.

2022 March 9, Samantha Ibrahim, “Marvel switching 'King Conan' character after indigenous community backlash”, in New York Post, archived from the original on 2022-03-15:

Jokes and memes about colonizers' bland-ass food resonate, and not because of their originality or comedic genius; implicit in those quips is a declaration of allegiance with people whose ancestral lands were once plundered by colonial powers for spices and other riches.

2022 August 23, Jenny G. Zhang, “What We Talk About When We Talk About "White People Food"”, in Bon Appétit, archived from the original on 2022-12-14:

(US, Canada, slang, derogatory, neologism) A white person.


colonialist

en-adj

colonialist (comparative more colonialist, superlative most colonialist)

more colonialist (comparative)
most colonialist (superlative)

Outlines of a systemic relation between society and ecology are evident with the theoretical innovations underlying the ecoimperialist and colonialist critiques.

2017, Paul Thompson, Environmental Justice:


colonialist

[Marc Jacobs] is a colonialist, an extender of brands, and in very good shape.

2010 November 10, John Caramanica, “Monopoly by Marc Jacobs”, in The New York Times:

So far, the daily dose of quinine had been bitter and very unpalatable. […] To make the medicine go down more easily, colonialists occasionally mixed the powder with sugar, water and gin.

2014, Olivia Williams, “Gin is the Tonic”, in Gin Glorious Gin: How Mother’s Ruin Became the Spirit of London, London: Headline Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 163:

One who supports or advocates colonialism.

müstəmləkəçi

one who supports or advocates colonialism


conquistador

en-noun

conquistador (plural conquistadors or conquistadores)

conquistadors (plural)
conquistadores (plural)

A conqueror, but especially one of the Spanish soldiers that invaded Central and South America otherwise known as the doorways to the new world, in the 16th century and defeated the Incas and Aztecs.


decolonize

en-verb

decolonize (third-person singular simple present decolonizes, present participle decolonizing, simple past and past participle decolonized)

decolonizes (present singular third-person)
decolonizing (participle present)
decolonized (participle past)
decolonized (past)

Across Ukraine, officials are starting projects to, as they say, “decolonize” their cities. Streets and subway stops whose names evoke the history of the Russian Empire or the Soviet Union are under scrutiny by a population eager to rid itself of traces of the nation that invaded in late February.

2022 June 7, Erika Solomon, “Goodbye, Tchaikovsky and Tolstoy: Ukrainians look to ‘decolonize’ their streets.”, in The New York Times:

The arrival of Trump in the White House gave a new urgency to the idea that museums needed to “decolonize” their collections, atone for their past elitism, and become overtly political institutions rather than mere warehouses of valuable objects.

2022 October 3, Helen Lewis, “The Guggenheim’s Scapegoat”, in The Atlantic, →ISSN:

(transitive, social sciences) To reverse the colonization of, i.e. to grant back autonomy to a group.


precolonial

Of or pertaining to a historical period before colonisation.


recolonize

recolonize (third-person singular simple present recolonizes, present participle recolonizing, simple past and past participle recolonized)

recolonizes (present singular third-person)
recolonizing (participle present)
recolonized (participle past)
recolonized (past)

To colonize again, especially after decolonization.


recolonization

en-noun

recolonization (countable and uncountable, plural recolonizations)

The act of recolonizing; a second or subsequent colonization.


anticolonial

en-adj

anticolonial (comparative more anticolonial, superlative most anticolonial)

more anticolonial (comparative)
most anticolonial (superlative)


precontact

Describing a period before contact was established (especially with an indigenous people)


postcolonial

In the postcolonial period, democracy alternated with military rule.

The post-1990s retreat of manufacturing industry in many postcolonial cities across the world and the demands of first world capitalism paved the way to financial and service industries, such that the postcolonial city begins to function as a “node of an inter-metropolitan and global network carrying out information processing and control functions.”

2011, Rashmi Varma, The Postcolonial City and its Subjects: London, Nairobi, Bombay, Routledge, →ISBN:

a postcolonial theory of esthetics

There can be no doubt that Derrida's contribution to postcolonialism is not as clearly politicized as that of Fanon, Sartre or Gandhi, but it is nevertheless crucial in its careful consideration of the contrasting ethics and politics that might inform postcolonial thought.

2014, Jane Hiddleston, Understanding Postcolonialism, Routledge, →ISBN, page 112:

(philosophy) Of or pertaining to postcolonialism.


postcolonial

A person living in a postcolonial society.


anticolonialism

(politics) The movement that opposes colonialism.


postcolonialism

en-noun

postcolonialism (countable and uncountable, plural postcolonialisms)

As a literary theory, postcolonialism examines literature produced both by authors in colonial countries and by colonized peoples responding to colonial legacies by ‘writing back’, or challenging colonial cultural attitudes through literature.

2009, Cheryl McEwan, Postcolonialism and Development, Routledge, →ISBN, page 23:

An academic discipline that attempts to analyse, explain, and respond to the cultural legacies of colonialism and imperialism.


colonialistic

en-adj

colonialistic (comparative more colonialistic, superlative most colonialistic)

more colonialistic (comparative)
most colonialistic (superlative)


Jamestown

Any of numerous places in English-speaking regions:

A small village in County Laois, Ireland.

A large number of places in the United States:

A census-designated place in Tuolumne County, California.

census-designated place
census-designated place

A statutory town in Boulder County, Colorado.

A ghost town in Chattahoochee County, Georgia.

Chattahoochee County
Chattahoochee County#English

A small community of Ware County, Georgia.

A village in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.

Bienville Parish
Bienville Parish#English

A city in Chautauqua County, New York; the largest city in the United States with this name; named after early settler James Prendergast.

Chautauqua County
Chautauqua County#English

A town in Guilford County, North Carolina.

A city, the county seat of Stutsman County, North Dakota; the second-largest city in the United States with this name.

An unincorporated community in Rogers County, Oklahoma.

A borough in Mercer County, Pennsylvania.

A town in Newport County, Rhode Island; named after King James II of England.

A tiny town in Berkeley County, South Carolina.

An unincorporated community in Smith County, Texas.

An unincorporated community in Jefferson County, West Virginia.


Columbian

en-noun

Columbian (countable and uncountable, plural Columbians)

A stamp from the Columbian Issue stamps.


coloniality

coloniality (usually uncountable, plural colonialities)


Columbian Exchange

First used in 1972 by American historian Alfred W. Crosby, in his eponymous work of environmental history, thereafter rapidly being adopted by other historians and journalists.

The widespread transfer of animals, plants, culture, human populations, communicable diseases, technology and ideas between the American and Afro-Eurasian hemispheres in the 15th and 16th centuries, related to European colonization and trade after Christopher Columbus' 1492 voyage.

哥倫布大交換

widespread transfer of animals and plants between the American and Afro-Eurasian hemispheres


postcoloniality

postcoloniality (countable and uncountable, plural postcolonialities)


decoloniality

Additionally, authors often examine the epistemic conditions of possibility that are necessary to construct these ways of studying and practicing decoloniality.

2020, Marcos S. Scauso, Intersectional Decoloniality […] , Routledge, →ISBN:

A form of critical theory associated with decolonialization.


Roanoke

Borrowed from Powhatan rawrenock (“roanoke”, literally “things rubbed smooth by hand”).

bor+

A city in Randolph County, Alabama, United States.

A village in Woodford County, Illinois, United States.

A town in Huntington County, Indiana, United States.

Huntington County
Huntington County#English

An unincorporated community in Howard County and Randolph County, Missouri, United States.

A city in Denton County, Texas, United States.

An unincorporated community in Lewis County, West Virginia, United States.


French colonial empire

(historical) France and its colonies from the sixteenth century forward. It ended when French colonies became independent after World War II.


postcolonial studies

The acceptance of postcolonial studies by a capitalist academia appears as a mode of containment, if not outright manipulation, of liberationist anticolonial energies.

2016, Raphael Dalleo, editor, Bourdieu and Postcolonial Studies, Liverpool University Press, →ISBN, page 4:

The study of the cultural legacies of colonialism and imperialism; postcolonialism.


Spanish colonial period

Coordinate term: American colonial period

(Philippines, history, colonialism) A time period in Philippine history where the Philippines Islands were ruled as the Captaincy General of the Philippines within the Spanish East Indies, initially under the Viceroyalty of New Spain, based in Mexico City, until the independence of the Mexican Empire from Spain in 1821.


American colonial period

the American colonial period (canonical)

Coordinate term: Spanish colonial period

(Philippines, history, colonialism) A time period in Philippine history that began with the outbreak of the Spanish–American War in April 1898, when the Philippines was still a colony of the Spanish East Indies, and concluded when the United States formally recognized the independence of the Republic of the Philippines on July 4, 1946.