woke

en-adj

woke (not generally comparable, comparative more woke or woker, superlative most woke or wokest)

more woke (comparative)
woker (comparative)
most woke (superlative)
wokest (superlative)

→ Dutch: woke

→ German: woke

→ Swedish: woke

Shortened from woken or woke(n) up, or dialectal use of woke (past participle of wake, see Etymology 2 below). The sense of being aware of social injustice dates to at least the 1930s.

Waking up is a damn sight harder than going to sleep, but we’ll stay woke up longer.

1942, J. Saunders Redding, Negro Digest, volume 01:

If You’re Woke You Dig It [title]

1962 May 20, William Melvin Kelley, “If You’re Woke You Dig It”, in The New York Times, page 45:

I been sleeping all my life. And now that Mr. Garvey done woke me up, I’m gon stay woke. And I’m gon help him wake up other black folk.

What if there was no niccas / Only master teachers? / I stay woke (dreams dreams)

2008, Erykah Badu (lyrics and music), “Master Teacher”, in New Amerykah Part One (4th World War):

[…] stay woke[,] people of color, / let us occupy this dissent

2014, Lynn Sweeting, WomanSpeak, A Journal of Writing and Art by Caribbean Women, volume 7:

(originally African-American Vernacular, slang) Alert, aware of what is going on, or well-informed, especially in racial and other social justice issues.

But the cultural conflict between these two post-revolutionary styles — between frat guys and feminist bluestockings, Gamergaters and the diversity police, alt-right provocateurs and “woke” dudebros, the mouthbreathers who poured hate on the all-female “Ghostbusters” and the tastemakers who pretended it was good — is likely here to stay.

2016 August 14, Ross Douthat, “A Playboy for President”, in The New York Times:

Like, if I tweet or hashtag about how you didn’t do something right or used the wrong verb, then I can sit back and feel pretty good about myself, cause, "Man, you see how woke I was, I called you out." That’s not activism. That’s not bringing about change.

2019 October 29, Emily S. Rueb, Derrick Bryson Taylor, quoting Barack Obama, “Obama on Call-Out Culture: ‘That’s Not Activism’”, in The New York Times:

If this were actually true, you would expect real traction for the wokest candidates in the Democratic presidential race. But it’s been just the opposite. The woke candidates have been the weakest, electorally speaking, and the defining attribute of the Democratic primary has been a preoccupation with the voters that put Trump in the White House.

2019 December 6, Jamelle Bouie, “Why the ‘Wokest’ Candidates Are the Weakest”, in The New York Times:

[Kevin Smith is] also baffled by some of the accusations that he tried to make the franchise “woke” by focusing on Teela.

2021 July 26, Lauren Sarner, “Kevin Smith on ‘Masters of the Universe’ and fan backlash”, in New York Post:

Rightwing Tory MPs should stop portraying concerns over the climate and nature as “woke”, and understand that voters are deeply concerned about the crisis, the Conservative minister Zac Goldsmith has warned.

2022 November 15, Fiona Harvey, quoting Zac Goldsmith, “‘Stupid’ to equate climate concerns with being woke, says Zac Goldsmith”, in The Guardian:

(by extension, politics, slang, often derogatory) Holding progressive views or attitudes, principally with regard to social justice.

politisk korrekt

politically correct; stereotypically leftist


woke

en-noun

woke (countable and uncountable, plural wokes)

Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University in London, said the war on woke kicked off as a counter to the “silent revolution” of liberal and progressive attitudes during the economic boom of the decades up to 2008.

2021 January 8, Emilio Casalicchio, “Britain’s culture war extends beyond Brexit”, in Politico:

The woke is the new religion of the left.

Millennials, such as Styles (and the other Harry, HRH, for that matter), were able to popularise and profit from woke.

2023 February 18, Panda La Terriere, “Why Gen Z is turning against woke culture”, in The Spectator:

For I’m afraid the demise of woke won’t be like the end of toothbrush moustaches, indie folk music or any other temporary behaviour supercharged by the whims of the young and the hip, then dropped without consequence.

2024 April 22, Kathleen Stock, “Turn of the woke tide will leave many stranded”, in The Times:

(uncountable, slang, derogatory) A progressive ideology, in particular with regards to social justice.


politically correct

en-adj

politically correct (comparative more politically correct, superlative most politically correct)

more politically correct (comparative)
most politically correct (superlative)

Karen DeCrow
Mao Zedong
Toni Cade Bambara

The earliest known attestation is in late 18th century United States, in response to a toast made to “the United States” instead of to “the people of the United States”.
In the early twentieth century the term was associated with the dogmatic application of Stalinist and Communist Party doctrine, and later popularised by Mao Zedong in his 1963 essay Where Do Correct Ideas Come From? which equated “correct” with “the disciplined acceptance of a party line”.
In the 1970s it was adopted by wider left-wing politics. The first known use in this sense was by Toni Cade in her 1970 anthology The Black Woman. It was subsequently used in a statement by Karen DeCrow in December 1975 in her capacity as president of the National Organization for Women.
In the 1980s it acquired the pejorative sense when used to mock conformist liberal academics, their stereotypical political views and alleged attempts to control language.

Sentiments and expressions of this inaccurate kind prevail in our common, even in our convivial, language. Is a toast asked? ‘The United States’, instead of the ‘People of the United States’, is the toast given. This is not politically correct.

1793, U.S. Supreme Court, Chisholm v State of GA, 2 US 419 (1793)

[On] the one hand we should demand that the poet's work conform to the correct political tendency, on the other hand we have the right to expect that his work be of high quality. … I want to show you that the political tendency of a work can only be politically correct if it is also literarily correct. That means that the correct political tendency includes a literary tendency. For, just to clarify things right away, this literary tendency, which is implicitly or explicitly contained in every correct political tendency – that, and nothing else constitutes the quality of a work.

1934/1970, Walter Benjamin, "The Author as Producer" (address at the Institute for the Study of Fascism, Paris, April 27, 1934), as translated by John Heckman for New Left Review 1/62, July-August 1970

I am here to tell you that we are going to do those things which need to be done, not because they are politically correct, but because they are right. We are going to pass a civil rights bill if it takes all summer.

1964 March 23, Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks in Atlantic City at the Convention of the United Auto Workers:

Lenin gave an all-round substantiation of the impossibility of implementing the United States of Europe slogan under capitalism. He said this slogan merged with socialism and acquired political meaning only under socialism. It was politically correct also from the standpoint of the need to overthrow the three reactionary monarchies of Europe—that of Russia, of Germany and of Austria-Hungary.

1969, Y. F. Sopin, chapter 5, in The Bolshevik Party's Struggle Against Trotskyism, page 214:

(politics) Possessing or conforming to the correct political positions; following the official policies of the government or a political party.


representation

en-noun

representation (countable and uncountable, plural representations)

From Late Middle English representacioun, from Old French representacion, from Latin repraesentātiō. By surface analysis, represent + -ation.

The lack of representation in the British parliament was one of the main factors behind the American Revolution.

(politics) The ability to elect a representative to speak on one's behalf in government; the role of this representative in government.

представителство

politics: ability to elect a representative


liberation

liberation (countable and uncountable, plural liberations)

Borrowed from Middle French libération, and from Latin liberatio, liberationem (“a freeing”), from liberare past participle liberatus (“set free”); see liberate.

bor

women's liberation... black liberation... gay liberation...

(politics) The achievement of equal rights and status, particularly as seen as freedom from historic and structural oppression.


oppression

en-noun

oppression (countable and uncountable, plural oppressions)

From Middle English oppression, from Old French oppression, from Latin oppressiō (“a pressing down, violence, oppression”), from opprimō; see oppress.

der

Extreme freedom is followed by extreme oppression, said Plato.

The act of oppressing, or the state of being oppressed.


privilege

en-noun

privilege (countable and uncountable, plural privileges)

From Middle English privilege, from Anglo-Norman privilege and Old French privilege, from Latin prīvilēgium (“ordinance or law against or in favor of an individual”), from prīvus (“private”) + lēx, lēg- (“law”).

der

(computing) An ability to perform an action on the system that can be selectively granted or denied to users.


Latine

Borrowed from Spanish latine (“Latine; Latino or Latina”). Gender-neutral e replaces the gendered endings/elements a and o.

-a-o-e

(gender-neutral, neologism) Hispanic; Latino or Latina.


POC

en-noun

POC (countable and uncountable, plural POCs)


inclusive

en-adj

inclusive (comparative more inclusive, superlative most inclusive)

more inclusive (comparative)
most inclusive (superlative)

From Middle French inclusif, from Medieval Latin inclūsīvus, from Latin inclūsus.

Wikipedia describes inclusive counting in Counting

The pronoun in "If you want, we could go back to my place for coffee" is an inclusive "we".

(linguistics) Of, or relating to the first-person plural pronoun when including the person being addressed.

inclusif

of, or relating to the first-person plural pronoun when including the person being addressed


questioning

questioning (not generally comparable, comparative more questioning, superlative most questioning)

more questioning (comparative)
most questioning (superlative)

/ˈkwɛʃ.t͡ʃə.nɪŋ/

From question + -ing (noun via Middle English questionyng).

Why do you have a questioning look? Are you puzzled about something?

Characterized by questions, inquisitiveness, doubt, or wonder; quizzical.


internalize

en-verb

internalize (third-person singular simple present internalizes, present participle internalizing, simple past and past participle internalized)

internalizes (present singular third-person)
internalizing (participle present)
internalized (participle past)
internalized (past)

(transitive, programming) To store (a string or other structure) in a shared pool, such that subsequent items with the same value can share the same instance.


bleeding-heart

Any of several species of bird in the genus Gallicolumba of the pigeon family, native to the Philippines, characterised by a red patch on the plumage of the breast.


political correctness

en-noun

political correctness (countable and uncountable, plural political correctnesses)

Dr. Seuss
J. K. Rowling
Roald Dahl
political correctness

(countable) The result or product of being politically correct.

conservative correctness

used by leftists to refer to conservative censorship


all cats are grey in the dark

Calque of French la nuit, tous les chats sont gris (“at night, all cats are grey”), sometimes understood with vulgar reference to secondary senses of cat and pussy.

calque

[Of a widow:] And to make carnall appetite content,
To take lacke of beautie but as an eye ſore.
The fayre and the foule, by darke are lyke ſtore.
When all candels be out, all cats be grey,
All thingis are then of one colour, as who ſey.
And this prouerbe ſaith, for quenching hot deſyre,
Foule water as ſoone as fayre, will quenche hot fyre.

1562, John Heywood, A Dialogue Conteynyng the Number of the Effectuall Proverbes in the Englishe Tounge..., page 10:

‘When all candles be out all catts be gray:’
This none but careless leachers will say.

1611, John Davies, "Vpon Englishe Prouerbs", Scourge of Folly, §387

There's as good Bread bak'd here as in France, and Joan’s as good as my Lady in the Dark. In the Night all Cats are grey. Unhappy's he that wants his Breakfaſt at Two in the Afternoon... Sancho’s proverbial aphoriſms, and the ſimple Waiting-Woman's Comment upon the Text, were no ſmall Diverſion to the Dutcheſs.

1719, Peter Motteux & al. translating Miguel de Cervantes as The History of the Renowed Don Quixote de la Mancha, Vol. III, p. 307

The Face first grows lank and wrinkled; then the Neck; then the Breast and Arms; the lower Parts continuing to the last as plump as ever: So that covering all above with a Basket, and regarding only what is below the Girdle, it is impossible of two Women to know an old from a young one. And as in the dark all Cats are grey, the Pleasure of corporal Enjoyment with an old Woman is at least equal, and frequently superior, every Knack being by Practice capable of Improvement.

1745 June 25, Benjamin Franklin, "Advice to a Friend on Choosing a Mistress"

... at laft [King Croquignolet] gained intelligence of a famous wizard in the land of Gotham, a very prodigy of ſcience, to whom the world is indebted for old Robin's Almanack, the Court Calendar, the Attorney's Vade-Mecum, the Lady's Diary, and the Gentleman's Magazine... He firſt made known to mankind that after a ſtorm comes a calm; that it is day when the ſun is riſen; that dead men tell no tales; that ſhops ſhut are a ſure ſign of Sunday; that all cats are grey in the dark; that as ſoon as the ſun is ſet, there are many beaſts in the ſhade.

1796, "R.C." translating Marguerite de Lubert as Princess Coquedoeuf and Prince Bonbon: A History..., p. 8

However—the Frenchman's a practical man... He's trained to spot the redeeming graces as adroitly as a highly bred pig sniffs truffles. And faced with the homeliest dame he'll work over her until he can say, "Yes—she's certainly homely, but she has 'delightful ears'"; or "and exciting back to her neck"; or "provocative biceps." And the worst he cares to admit about any woman is "Yes, she is very ugly, but she has 'something' (Elle a quelque chose)." And if you get him in a cynical but wholesome mood he'll indicate that after all, "All cats are grey at night!"

1937, "They Order It Better in France", Esquire, Vol. 8, No. 3, p. 209

In one poem, unjustly attributed to Voltaire, the regent was accused of conducting an affaire with his eldest daughter, the Duchesse de Berry, which seems to have been true. The libertine regent loved women, but none more than his remarkable mother Liselotte, and it was to her that he uttered the famous rebuke when she complained he chose such ugly mistresses: "Bah! Mama, all cats look gray in the dark!"

1991, Marie-Christine Anna Agnes Hedwig Ida von Reibnitz, Cupid and the King, p. 56

"All Japanese look alike" is the racist counterpart to the sexist "In the dark, all cats are gray."

2011, Wendy Doniger, The Uninvited Spider, page 31:

(UK, sometimes vulgar and offensive) Sex is enjoyable regardless of the physical attractiveness or social station of one's partner.

dans la nuit, tous les chats sont gris (Cajun)

en tiempos de guerra cualquier agujero es trinchera

นารีงามสรรพเมื่อดับเทียน (naa-ree ngaam sàp mêua dàp tian, literally “women are beautiful when candles are extinguished”)


marginalized

en-adj

marginalized (comparative more marginalized, superlative most marginalized)

more marginalized (comparative)
most marginalized (superlative)

The current Israeli government has been working to curtail and eliminate critical voices within Israeli society in recent years, particularly those fighting to end the occupation and expose human rights violations against Palestinians and marginalized communities.

2018, “Israeli gov't is trying to defund +972 Magazine, report says”, in +972 Magazine:


punch up

en-verb

punch up (third-person singular simple present punches up, present participle punching up, simple past and past participle punched up)

punches up (present singular third-person)
punching up (participle present)
punched up (participle past)
punched up (past)

To punch up the flavor even more, we looked to an untraditional ingredient: fish sauce.

2013, America's Test Kitchen, Comfort Food Makeovers: All Your Favorites Made Lighter:

(transitive) To make bolder, zestier, or more exciting.


culture vulture

en-noun

culture vulture (plural culture vultures)

/ˈkʌlt͡ʃə ˌvʌlt͡ʃə/

/ˈkʌlt͡ʃəɹ ˌvʌlt͡ʃəɹ/

However, a different indigenous researcher sees the use of restorative justice circles by nonindigenous people as being more of culture vultures and taking culture applicable to them and ignoring a brutal history of abuse, oppression, and genocide.

2020, Thomas Reed, “A Critical Review of the Native American Tradition of Circle Practices”, in Robin Throne, editor, Indigenous Research of Land, Self, and Spirit (Advances in Religious and Cultural Studies Book Series), Hershey, Pa.: Information Science Reference, IGI Global, published 2021, →ISBN, page 135:

Similarly, plug-in culture participates in a long history of cultural appropriation related to the construction of the male neoliberal subject. Think about Diplo, EDM producer-DJ and oft-accused "culture vulture," whose modus operandi involves applying Western, Eurocentric, and Americanized EDM styles to samples from global dance music communities.

2022, Mike D’Errico, “Plug-in Cultures”, in Push: Software Design and the Cultural Politics of Music Production, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →DOI, →ISBN, part I (Sonic Architectures), page 43:

cultural appropriation
cultural appropriation

cultural appropriator
cultural appropriator

(slang, derogatory, sociology) Someone who engages in cultural appropriation; a cultural appropriator.


BLM

black lives matter
black lives matter#English


white privilege

For quotations using this term, see Citations:white privilege.

(sociology) The collective advantages that white people are granted and enjoy in a society, usually apart from demonstrable merit, as contrasted against the advantages (or lack thereof) of non-whites of the same society.

白人特權

societal conditions that benefit white people


bluehair

Compound of blue + hair.
The "elderly person" sense, first documented in the 1980s, refers to the blue rinse once used by older women to conceal grey hair.
The second sense emerged from the stereotypical association of dyed blue hair with social-justice activists.

I have memories from a young age in which my father is yelling about "blue hairs" and their inability to drive. And everyone remembers that scene in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" in which the old lady cannot see over the steering wheel and is swerving down the road.

1997, Karin Vonesh, "Who are the worst drivers of all?", Southwords (Maine South High School, Park Ridge, IL), Volume 34, Issue 7, 19 December 1997, page 3

He'd recently swiped the little orange bottle of OxyContin from the old hag he often watched on Tuesday nights when her cold, indifferent middle-aged daughter played bingo with the other bluehairs from the strip-mall salon she frequented.

2011, Lola Newmar, Devlin's Beast, page 33:

“Anyone can join,” O'Neill says. “We have age ranges from children to blue hairs.”

2019, Chris O'Neill, quoted in Jordan Bradley, "Do Something Different: Try These Alternative Recreation Options", Encore (Michigan), June 2019, page 25

(slang, derogatory or humorous) An elderly person, especially a woman or one viewed as senile, old-fashioned, or out of touch.


kyriarchy

kyriarchy (usually uncountable, plural kyriarchies)

/ˈkaɪɹɪˌɑːki/

From Ancient Greek κύριος (kúrios, “lord, master”) + -archy (“rule of”), modelled after German Herrschaft (“lordship; dominion, reign”) and expanding on patriarchy. Coined by Romanian-born German-American feminist theologian Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza in 1992.

coinage

[F]eminist theologies must adopt a social analytic that can break through the sex/gender system's totalizing and mystifying dualistic frame of reference. An analytic of kyriarchy rather than simply an analytic of gender, I argued, provides a more adequate conceptual tool of analysis.

1994, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, “And Mary Went into the Hill Country: Issues in Feminist Christology”, in Jesus: Miriam’s Child, Sophia’s Prophet: Critical Issues in Feminist Christology, London: SCM Press, →ISBN, page 38; Jesus: Miriam’s Child, Sophia’s Prophet: Critical Issues in Feminist Christology (T&T Clark Cornerstones), 2nd edition, London, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2015, →ISBN, part I (The Invitation of Wisdom), page 38:

The idea of kyriarchy or kyriocentrism acknowledges the complex interstructures of domination that include sexist practices and social arrangements but contextualizes and situates them within a wider scope of oppression.

1995, Marsha Aileen Hewitt, Critical Theory of Religion: A Feminist Analysis, Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, →ISBN, page 167:

I have argued that patriarchy must be re-conceptualized as kyriarchy, a neologism which is derived from the Greek kyrios (lord, master, father, husband) and the verb archein (to rule, dominate). […] Kyriarchy is best theorized as a complex pyramidal system of intersecting multiplicative social structures of superordination and subordination, of ruling and oppression. Kyriarchal relations of domination are built on elite male property rights as well as on the exploitation, dependency, inferiority, and obedience of wo/men.

2001, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Wisdom Ways: Introducing Feminist Biblical Interpretation, Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, →ISBN:

As a Palestinian woman, she [Jean Zaru] has experienced what Asian postcolonial feminist theologian Kwok Pui Lan names as the multiple kyriarchies (or interlocking layers of oppressions) faced by those in colonized lands.

2013, Eda Ruhiye Uca, “Hornets at the Roundtable: Life and Death in the Interstitial Margins”, in Laurel Dykstra, editor, Bury the Dead: Stories of Death and Dying, Resistance and Discipleship, Eugene, Or.: Cascade Books, Wipf and Stock, →ISBN, part III (Remembrance and Resistance), pages 136–137:

Kyriarchy considers the power structures that intersectionality produces (Osborne, 2015). Kyriarchy concerns structural power and refers to social systems that dominate and oppress.

2023, David L. Blustein, Lisa Y. Flores, editors, Rethinking Work: Essays on Building a Better Workplace, Routledge, →ISBN:

A system of ruling and oppression in which many people may interact and act as oppressor or oppressed.


mansplaining

Blend of man + explaining, or from mansplain + -ing.

Mansplaining isn't just the act of explaining while male, of course; many men manage to explain things every day without in the least insulting their listeners... Mansplaining is when a dude tells you, a woman, how to do something you already know how to do, or how you are wrong about something you are actually right about, or miscellaneous and inaccurate "facts" about something you know a hell of a lot more about than he does.

2009 May 8, Karen Healey, “A woman's born to weep and fret”, in Karen Healey's Livejournal:

It's hard to appreciate the full pathological depths of mansplaining unless you've read late-period Heinlein, an experience comparable to being trapped in an elevator for six hours with a boorish know-it-all offering his theories on economics, politics, sex, aesthetics, military strategy, investing and myriad other topics.

2014 December 1, Jeet Heer, Sweet Lechery: Reviews, Essays & Profiles, The Porcupine's Quill, →ISBN, page 179:

“Cognitive therapy” is the fancy clinical term for what is otherwise known as “mansplaining.”

2015 December 7, James Taranto, “You're Being Hysterical. Calm Down.”, in The Wall Street Journal:

(informal, derogatory) The act of condescendingly explaining something, particularly by a man to a woman, in order to appear knowledgeable, or from a mistaken presumption that she has an inferior understanding of the topic.


queer studies

The study, based on critical theory, of issues relating to sexual orientation and gender identity, usually focusing on LGBT.


mansplainer

Think about the men you know. Do any of them display that delightful mixture of privilege and ignorance that leads to condescending, inaccurate explanations, delivered with the rock-solid conviction of rightness and that slimy certainty that of course he is right, because he is the man in this conversation?

2009 May 8, Karen Healey, “A woman's born to weep and fret”, in Karen Healey's Livejournal, retrieved 2012-05-26:

(informal) One (especially a man) who mansplains.


mansplain

en-verb

mansplain (third-person singular simple present mansplains, present participle mansplaining, simple past and past participle mansplained)

mansplains (present singular third-person)
mansplaining (participle present)
mansplained (participle past)
mansplained (past)

Blend of man + explain, equivalent to man + -splain.

But what's getting all of the attention in the bill is the part where legislators have banded together to mansplain the various shadings of the crime of "rape" to America.

2011 February 1, Jason Linkins, “What’s behind the drive to redefine rape in new and insane ways?”, in The Huffington Post, archived from the original on 2016-04-01:

There were some Occupy-style solutions: those whose voices dominate should “step back” for an entire meeting. […] Men should notice when they are “mansplaining” (this one got a thunderous ovation).

2012 May 18, Sarah Seltzer, “Can Occupy fight back against the war on women?”, in The Nation, archived from the original on 2013-08-14:

Positioning himself as the white guy mansplaining to a black woman what’s best for her, The New York Times’s John Caramanica argues that Rihanna’s attempt, on the album, “to make public art with the person who physically abused you is immature, pre-feminist, post-ethics.”

2015 February 27, Robin James, Resilience & Melancholy: Pop Music, Feminism, Neoliberalism, Alresford, Hants: Zero Books, →ISBN:

(informal, derogatory) To explain (something) condescendingly (to a female listener), especially to explain something the listener already knows, presuming that she has an inferior understanding of it merely because she is female.


intersectionality

en-noun

intersectionality (countable and uncountable, plural intersectionalities)

the intersectionality of these issues

the intersectionality of race, gender, class, ethnicity, age, generation, marital status, and place of origin

The feminist movement has also laid the groundwork for new intersectionalities with other movements. The intersectionality of interests between legal feminists and fem-crits has perpetuated a progressive CLS [Critical Legal Studies]-tilt within feminist legal discourse.

1993 March, Journal of Legal Education, volume 43, number 1, [Durham, N.C.]: Association of American Law Schools, →OCLC, page 45:

With men who are unemployed men or have limited access to work this heightening of masculinity within the interior of the familial relationship is of particular relevance with differences attributable to the intersectionality of race, class, culture and sexual orientation.

1998, Rhea V. Almeida, “The Dislocation of Women's Experience in Family Therapy”, in Rhea V. Almeida, editor, Transformations of Gender and Race: Family and Developmental Perspectives, New York, N.Y.: Haworth Press, →ISBN, page 16:

[Lisa] Bowleg details how she went about a psychological study of Black lesbian women only to find—in the midst of data collection—that the study had been configured along an additive model of identity that could not account for the intersectionality of her participants' experiences.

2014, Patrick R. Grzanka, “Introduction: Intersectional Objectivity”, in Patrick R. Grzanka, editor, Intersectionality: A Foundations and Frontiers Reader, Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, →ISBN, page xx:

The quality or state of being intersectional, that is, of being characterized by intersection (especially of multiple forms of discrimination).


microaggression

microaggression (countable and uncountable, plural microaggressions)

From micro- + aggression, coined by American psychiatrist Chester M. Pierce in 1970.

coin

At McGill, someone has established a McGill Microaggressions website inviting students and staff to report instances of “sexism, heteropatriarchy, transphobia, classism, racism [and] ableism.”

2014 February 18, Graeme Hamilton, “McGill student forced to apologize for racial ‘microaggression’ after emailing joke Obama clip”, in National Post, retrieved 2014-02-19:

Two terms have risen quickly from obscurity into common campus parlance. Microaggressions are small actions or word choices that seem on their face to have no malicious intent but that are thought of as a kind of violence nonetheless.

2015 September, Greg Lukianoff, Jonathan Haidt, “The Coddling of the American Mind”, in The Atlantic:

For many of us, microaggressions are so commonplace that it seems impossible to tackle them one at a time. Psychologists often compare them to death by a thousand cuts.

2020 March 3, Hahna Yoon, “How to Respond to Microaggressions”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Ask whether microaggressions merit the same response as physical assault and the Elect do not receive this as a challenging query.

2021, John H. McWhorter, chapter 6, in Woke Racism, New York: Forum, →ISBN:

(sociology, chiefly US) Any small-scale verbal or physical interaction between those of different races, cultures, beliefs, or genders that may have no malicious intent, but that can be interpreted as an aggression.

microagressió

everyday interaction interpreted as aggression


straightsplain

en-verb

straightsplain (third-person singular simple present straightsplains, present participle straightsplaining, simple past and past participle straightsplained)

straightsplains (present singular third-person)
straightsplaining (participle present)
straightsplained (participle past)
straightsplained (past)

From straight + -splain, after mansplain.

There are several different degrees of straightsplaining. That word, inspired by the increasingly common "mansplaining," describes the practice of straight people explaining how gay people are, or what gay people do, or how gay people do what they do, or why.

2014 July 2, Rich Juzwiak, “A Field Guide to Straightsplaining”, in Gawker, retrieved 2016-10-19:

What both Longhurst and Hartley-Brewer failed to notice was that, by trying to universalise the incident as an attack on, as they said, “the freedom of all people”, they were attempting to both whitewash and "straight-splain" Orlando.

2016 June 23, Alim Kheraj, “"Let LGBT People Of Colour Speak For Themselves"”, in Refinery29, retrieved 2016-10-19:

2016 October 18, Ben Winsor, “Comment: Thank you for straight-splaining the plebiscite to us 'naive' LGBT Australians”, in SBS Sexuality, archived from the original on 2016-10-20:

And now, the plebiscite is dead. And hopefully so is the straightsplaining.

2016 November 9, Rebecca Shaw, “The plebiscite is dead, hopefully it takes all the straightsplaining with it”, in SBS Comedy, retrieved 2017-04-21:

(colloquial, derogatory, chiefly Internet) To explain LGBT issues, people or behavior to someone who is not of a heterosexual orientation (i.e. an LGBT individual) in a condescending manner, presuming the listener's inferior understanding.


whitesplain

whitesplain (third-person singular simple present whitesplains, present participle whitesplaining, simple past and past participle whitesplained)

whitesplains (present singular third-person)
whitesplaining (participle present)
whitesplained (participle past)
whitesplained (past)

Rand Paul whitesplained to students at Howard University that a black Republican founded the NAACP.

2013, Clarence Page (quoting Urban Dictionary), "Rand Paul ‘whitesplaining’ for Howard students", New Haven Register, 16 April 2013

One self-described white feminist tweeted at her to explain that no women of color had been at the Barnard meeting "and that I needed to be educated about that," Wilson recalls. Somehow, activists who prided themselves on their racial enlightenment "were whitesplaining me about racism," she adds, laughing.

2014 February 17, Michelle Goldberg, “Feminism's Toxic Twitter Wars”, in The Nation:

Obviously, the answer for those living in abject poverty in a jobless environment is to have someone come down from their lofty perch and whitesplain about how to lift yourself up by your bootstraps.

2014, Justin Baragona, "Paul Ryan claims Black men are lazy and cause of poverty", New York Beacon, Volume 21, Number 12, 20 March 2014 - 26 March 2014, page 4

(colloquial, derogatory, chiefly Internet) To explain (something) condescendingly to one who is not white, especially regarding race relations or minority behavior, presuming the listener's inferior understanding because of their race.


mansplanation

Like I said, I can see how a person can take the song as a mansplanation of an issue primarily pertaining to women, but was that Lupe’s intention?

2012, Ameer Hasan Loggins, "Bitch Bad: Misogyny, Misappropriated Anger & 'Me-ism'", Onyx Express (University of California, Berkeley), Volume 18, Issue 1, Spring 2012, page 9

English physician Samuel Farr was pretty certain women couldn't get pregnant without an orgasm. The Guardian quotes the mansplanation from his 1814 Elements of Medical Jurisprudence: "For without an excitation of lust, or the enjoyment of pleasure in the venereal act, no conception can probably take place. So that if an absolute rape were to be perpetrated, it is not likely she would become pregnant."

2012 August, Erika Eichelberger, “Men Defining Rape: A History”, in Mother Jones:

Vesta's left me alone with him so he can give me some sort of Big Daddy lecture. Because the thing I need right now is a mansplanation of the error of my thinking.

2014 October 28, Alex Marwood, The Killer Next Door, Penguin, →ISBN, unnumbered page:

(informal) A condescending explanation given by a male explainer to a female listener, especially to explain something the listener already knows, presuming that she has an inferior understanding of it because she is a woman.


shitlord

I won't allow some hedonistic shitlord (like you) to destroy my family.

2002, Krisbam, “Craig lies again”, in alt.abortion (Usenet):

You're a nasty dickless little shitlord aren't ya?

2005, unknown poster, Evolution x problem (on newsgroup uk.games.video.xbox)

Every other week we get some uneducated politician shitlord braying on about how rape isn't that bad, rape babies are a gift from Jeebus, etc. and so on.

2013, unknown poster, OT: Is the UK really this fucked-up? (on newsgroup comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.war-historical)

(vulgar, derogatory, Internet slang) Term of abuse, typically applied to someone seen as bigoted.


social justice

The leisure class enjoyed advantages for which there was no basis in social justice; this necessarily made it oppressive, limited its sympathies, and caused it to invent theories by which to justify its privileges.

1932, Bertrand Russell, In Praise of Idleness

Our hope for creative living lies in our ability to re-establish the spiritual ends of our lives in personal character and social justice.

1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., “The Man Who Was a Fool”, in Strength to Love, New York: Pocket Books, published 1964, →OCLC, page 70:

The second challenge surfaces when we consider what it means to practice social justice. Generally, because most people see themselves as valuing social justice, most people also see themselves as acting justly in their lives. In response to questions about how they practice social justice, many would say that they treat everyone the same without regard to differences; because they do this, their actions are aligned with their values.

2017, Özlem Sensoy, Robin DiAngelo, Is Everyone Really Equal?: An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice, Teachers College Press, page xx:


Oppression Olympics

en-noun

Oppression Olympics (plural not attested)

First attested in 1993, see quotation below, but one source describes it as being in use "several years" before 1995. Attributions include unidentified students and Elizabeth V. Spelman.

[ELIZABETH] MARTÍNEZ: […] But the general idea is no competition of hierarchies should prevail. No “Oppression Olympics”!

1993 May 12, Angela Y. Davis, Elizabeth Martínez, “Coalition Building Among People of Color”, in María Ochoa, Teresia Teaiwa, editors, Enunciating Our Terms: Women of Color in Collaboration and Conflict (Inscriptions), volume 7, University of California: Santa Cruz Center for Cultural Studies, published 1994:

(derogatory, slang, figurative) Competition between marginalized groups to be considered the most subject to oppression.

Elizabeth V. Spelman
Oppression Olympics


SJW

SJW (countable and uncountable, plural SJWs)

Excellent read […] The patronising and angst-ridden logic of old conservatives has become mainstream, leftish and 'radical'.

2014, The Cheesehusker, Trade Warrior, “SJWs and cultural colonialism”, in rec.sport.football.college (Usenet):

[name redacted], racist SJW, hates free speech. She thinks it's good when mobs of stupid left-wing racist students shout down speakers they don't like and prevent them from giving addresses they were invited to deliver.

2015, Rüdî Cânôzä, “Re: [name redacted], racist SJW, vs liberals”, in alt.atheism (Usenet):

Contemporary street scene New York City: […]

2015, Soetoros Hundefleisch Liebe, “SOCIAL JUSTICE WARRIORS (SJWs) rule in 'Blue' AmeriKa”, in alt.politics.economics (Usenet):

Some cyberfeminist activists, in particular radical feminists on Tumblr, have been labeled “Social Justice Warriors” (SJWs) and are often scrutinized by mainstream feminist movements and popular culture.

2015, Adrienne Trier-Bieniek, Feminist Theory and Pop Culture, page 125:

2015, Stephen LeDrew (quoting Richard Dawkins from 2014), The Evolution of Atheism: The Politics of a Modern Movement
SJWs can't forgive Shakespeare for having the temerity to be white and male.

social justice warrior
social justice warrior#English

(Internet slang, countable, derogatory) Initialism of social justice warrior.


social justice warrior

social justice warrior (plural social justice warriors)

社會正義戰士

online activist who zealously promotes social justice causes

Looking back, I was more of a cop than a social justice warrior, as people on Tumblr had come to think of me.

2021, Liat Kaplan, “I Was Your Fave Is Problematic”, in The New York Times:

(neologism, politics) A person who advocates for progressive views or attitudes, principally with regard to social justice.

How will your upper class social justice warrior cope with men swearing and pushing each other? Will she faint at the first sight of blood from a split lip? Or will she hike up her skirts, grab a hot soup spoon, and brain the first aggressor she can find?

2014, Krista D. Ball, Hustlers, Harlots, and Heroes: A Regency and Steampunk Field Guide, Tyche Books Ltd., →ISBN:

But the partisan liberals in the Obama adminstration think that the rules don't apply to them. They are blind to the dragon's teeth of division and mistrust that their social justice politics sows in the body politic. They honor and celebrate the "activist," the "community organizer" and the social justice warrior, whose proud life purpose is to "raise consciousness" of injustice and marginalization.

2014, Joe Cooper, “It's Not 'Unwisdom', It's Hubris -- Hubris often indicates a loss of contact with reality.”, in soc.culture.usa (Usenet):

2014, Thejendra B.S., Digital Wildfires: How to Become a Social Justice Warrior, Createspace Independent Pub, →ISBN:

Finally, social justice warriors always portray themselves—and seem to experience themselves—as actively suffering victims who need protection.

2015, Peggy Noonan, “The Trigger-Happy Generation”, in The Wall Street Journal, volume CCLXV, number 120:

It's the time you realize your son's school has turned into Social Justice Warrior boot camp, where English is “Gender Studies” and History and Geography are “Global inequality and the failures of capitalism.”

2016, Nick Adams, Retaking America: Crushing Political Correctness:

(neologism, derogatory, politics) An advocate for social justice views whose actions are deemed overzealous, performative, or insincere.

Conny was a local painter who had achieved modest fame in the Canadian art scene with his experiments in New Age macho realism: the sensitive male writ large as compassionate lover, social justice warrior and loyal son to Mother Earth.

1995, Tim Dugdale, I Couldn't Care Less: A Novel, Black Moss Press, →ISBN, page 33:

This book is dedicated to the memory of a great environmental and social justice warrior, mother, labor organizer, singer-songwriter, Earth Firstler activist, and much, much more Judi Bari (1949-1977)

1998, Daniel J. Faber, The Struggle for Ecological Democracy: Environmental Justice Movements in the United States, Guilford Press, →ISBN:

Daniel raised an eyebrow. “Do you happen to have an expert handy on toxic pesticides in the food supply?” Jacob blew out his breath. “No, but — hold on, yes, I might.” He drew out his phone. “Let me text my favorite social justice warrior.” Jessica might not know much about arsenic and pesticides, but she would certainly know who would.

2014, Laura VanArendonk Baugh, Con Job, Æclipse Press, →ISBN, page 101:

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see social justice, warrior; a social justice activist.


manspreading

From man + spreading. Popularized in 2014, perhaps patterned after mansplaining. Equal to manspread + -ing.

/ˈmænˌspɹɛdɪŋ/

Coordinate term: womanspreading

The new ads — aimed at curbing rude behavior like manspreading and wearing large backpacks on crowded trains — are set to go up in the subways next month.

2014 December 20, Emma G. Fitzsimmons, “A scourge is spreading. M.T.A.’s cure? Dude, close your legs”, in The New York Times:

Manspreading is certainly bad manners in a crowded subway – and so is other stuff, like people wielding giant backpacks.

2015 January 10, Margaret Wente, “Advice to younger women: Practise manning up”, in The Globe and Mail, Toronto:

Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram show thousands pictures of men engaging in this behaviour, and New York's transit authority launched a campaign against ‘manspreading’, with a Tumblr dedicated: Men Taking Up Too Much Space On The Train.

2015 January 16, Natasha Devon, “The rise of stranger shaming: How humiliating others became acceptable”, in The Independent, London:

Manspreading creates stability for your pelvis and lower back. You can either position your feet together and let your knees fall to the sides or spread your feet wide.

2016, Kelly Starrett, Deskbound: Standing Up to a Sitting World, page 190:

(informal, derogatory) The practice of men splaying their legs open wide when sitting on public transport, thus occupying more than one seat.


progressive stack

progressive stack (plural progressive stacks)

(activism) A list of speakers arranged so that people from marginalized groups get the chance to speak first.


safe space

Lesbians at this conference often referred to the search for the sacred "safe space" where we are all the same. This is an avoidance of confrontation in our communities, in society. Separation is a retreat which only a privileged few can enjoy. Real safety will come by uniting with all our allies to defeat the right wing, capitalism and the patriarchy.

1983 December 24, Nancy Reiko, Midge Ward, Nellie Wong, Merle Woo, Emily Woo Yamasaki, “Lesbians Of Color”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 23, page 4:

This confirms the claim that the internet is not an entirely safe space, and while blogs offer LGBTQs the opportunity to express their views freely and anonymously, they grant this possibility to haters and homophobes, too […]

2016, Alexander Dhoest, Lukasz Szulc, Bart Eeckhout, LGBTQs, Media and Culture in Europe, page 166:

Ideally, these safe spaces would also be environments in which students would find support, develop coping skills, and hone effective techniques for communicating with one another in a way that honors tolerance, avoids stereotypes, and cuts down on hate on campuses.

2017, John Palfrey, Safe Spaces, Brave Spaces: Diversity and Free Expression in Education, MIT Press, →ISBN, page 21:

Even Fox News, once Trump’s safe space, the TV network where he would often just call in for a chat, seems to have officially moved on.

2022 November 10, Adam Gabbatt, “Has ‘Trumpty Dumpty’ taken a great fall from Rupert Murdoch’s grace?”, in The Guardian:

The plot picks up where the last film left off. The High Table, the organisation that controls crime around the world, has a multi-million-dollar contract out on Wick, who killed a High Table member. In more familiar Mafia terms, it's as if he murdered a made man. And he violated another rule by doing it on the grounds of a Continental hotel, the supposed safe spaces for assassins around the world.

2023 March 14, Caryn James, “John Wick: Chapter 4: 'Soars above most action films'”, in BBC:

(sociology) A place or domain serving as a tolerant environment for people (especially a marginalized group) where they do not face harassment, criticism, scrutiny, etc.; especially one in which participants are understood to share a given political or social viewpoint.


mansplainy

en-adj

mansplainy (comparative more mansplainy, superlative most mansplainy)

more mansplainy (comparative)
most mansplainy (superlative)

So, have pity on the mansplainer. His is the merely the voice of a patriarchal world eclipsed by a new one ... wait, did that sound mansplainy?

2014 July 26, Wallace Baine, “A man explains 'mansplaining'”, in Santa Cruz Sentinel:

[…] in Little Women everyone's favourite tomboy Jo March is eventually tamed into a 'good wife' by the paternally mansplainy Professor Bhaer […]

2015, Emily Berry, edited by Antonia Fraser, The Pleasure of Reading: 43 Writers on the Discovery of Reading and the Books that Inspired Them, Bloomsbury, →ISBN, pages 306–307:

The nods to how women react to men stripping ranges from the inexplicable […] to the utterly mansplainy, as in the scene in which two men discuss why (they imagine) women like male strippers.

2015, Maryann Johanson, "Spoiled Beefcake", The Riverfront Times, Volume 39, Number 27, 1 July 2015 - 7 July 2015, page 26

It feels churlish — and, to be honest, at least a bit mansplainy — even to introduce the slightest hint of cold water on the growth of women’s soccer. The infusion of money is welcome, no question. The involvement of men’s clubs is, probably, necessary to accelerate the game’s growth. What matters most of all, of course, is the health of the structure as a whole.

2021 February 26, Rory Smith, “Have You Seen This Man?”, in The New York Times:

(informal) Engaging in, featuring, or characteristic of mansplaining.


cultural appropriation

en-noun

cultural appropriation (countable and uncountable, plural cultural appropriations)

/ˈkʌlt͡ʃ(ə)ɹəl əˌpɹoʊpɹiˈeɪʃən/

where to draw a line between cultural fusion and cultural appropriation

What are the implications for our understanding of the ethics of cultural appropriation when the sound of a Pacific island women's choir becomes the hook of a club hit in Europe, without reward, recompense, or credit for that choir?

2000, David Hesmondhalgh, in Born/Hesmondhalgh, Western Music and Its Others, p. 280

Are yoga classes just bad cultural appropriation?

2015, The Guardian, headline, 23 November:

Where, then, is the line that divides the simple pleasure of cultural fusion from cultural appropriation? One answer is that it becomes appropriation when one group's sense of "normal" inexplicably and unfairly dominates over another.

2015 April 2, Navneet Alang, “Must We Forfeit Our Ghee?”, in Hazlitt, retrieved 2023-05-14:

The party guests were subsequently investigated by the college for ‘ethnic stereotyping’ and placed on ‘social probation’, while the students' general assembly denounced the event as an act of ‘cultural appropriation’.

2016 November, Frances Wilson, “Whose Life Is It Anyway?”, in Literary Review:

(sociology) The exploitative or oppressive cooption of elements of one culture by members of a different culture.


punch down

en-verb

punch down (third-person singular simple present punches down, present participle punching down, simple past and past participle punched down)

punches down (present singular third-person)
punching down (participle present)
punched down (participle past)
punched down (past)

The anti-vaxx movement punches down and punches hard. Its leaders tend to be men and women from wealthy backgrounds. […] They draw a large part of their audience from the poor, the poorly educated and ethnic minorities.

2021 January 30, Nick Cohen, “Anti-vaxxers posing as victims has a history. Look at Andrew Wakefield”, in The Guardian:

(intransitive, slang) To attack or target a group that is weaker or of lower status than oneself.


BLMer

(neologism) A supporter or member of the Black Lives Matter international human rights movement.


respectability politics

Attempts by marginalized groups to police their own members and show their social values as being compatible with mainstream values, rather than challenging the mainstream for its failure to accept difference.


Latinx

en-noun

Latinx (plural Latinxs or Latinx or Latinxes)

Latinxs (plural)
Latinx (plural)
Latinxes (plural)

Spanish: latinx

The gender-neutral suffix -x replaces the gendered Spanish suffixes -a and -o. Reinforced by United States Spanish latinx.

-a-o-x

(which see for more)

@nmoon Looks can be deceiving, but I "see" no Latinx, several multi-racials, 3 whites 90% AfrAm. I don't see anyone who looks solely AsAmer

2008 July 26, Elisa Camahort Page, “Elisa Camahort Page on Twitter”, in Twitter, archived from the original on 2016-11-17:

@metalmujer @soylamar there's also a variant with an x (Latinxs, maestrxs, etc.) but not quite as popular as @

2011 April 20, Karari Kue, “Karari Kue on Twitter”, in Twitter, archived from the original on 2016-11-17:

@kararikue @metalmujer I would love to read more abt the variations of Latin@ Latinx send me links, working on a presentation on diversity

2011 April 21, Reina Valenzuela, “Reina Valenzuela on Twitter”, in Twitter, archived from the original on 2016-11-17:

Asian Latinxs … Chicanxs/Latinxs …

2015 Fall, City on a Hill Press-Primer, page 30

Exclusion mainly occurs because Latinxs are conceived by the dominant Euroamerican culture as not belonging, as perpetual “illegals.”

2016, Miguel A. De La Torre, The U.S. Immigration Crisis: Toward an Ethics of Place, page 72:

[And] there is no reason Latinxs shouldn't be the ones to fill them.

Do stars with “hyphenated identities” have a responsibility to their constituencies (for example, a Latinx star to young Latinxes)?

2019, Kristin Lené Hole, Dijana Jelača, Film Feminisms: A Global Introduction, Routledge, →ISBN:

Her [Lucila D. Ek’s] research focuses on the bilingualism, biliteracy, and identities of Latinxes.

2019, “Author Biographies”, in Inmaculada M. García-Sánchez, Marjorie Faulstich Orellana, editors, Language and Cultural Practices in Communities and Schools: Bridging Learning for Students from Non-Dominant Groups, New York, N.Y., London: Routledge, →ISBN, page xiii:

Similarly, White Latinx people, who can pass in the United States as part of the dominant culture, sometimes experience pressure to not identify as Latinx or are told they are not as Latinx as brown-hued Latinxes.

2019, Grisel Y. Acosta, editor, Latina Outsiders Remaking Latina Identity, Routledge, →ISBN:

Dr Pigozzi’s book is essential reading for professionals who want to deliver effective and equitable care for Latinx.

2020, Teddie M. Potter, “Foreword”, in Laura Maria Pigozzi, Caring for and Understanding Latinx Patients in Health Care Settings, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, →ISBN, page 10:

Seventy percent of Latinxes’ ages 5 and older speak English proficiently, yet English proficiency varies across bilingual communities in the U.S. South Americans have the largest percentage (66.8%) of children who speak English very well, while 43.1% of Mexicans and 41.0% of Central American children (ages 5 – 18 years) speak English less than well.

2020, Sheila Bridges-Bond, “A Bilingual Child Diagnosed With Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)”, in Diane M. Scott, editor, Cases on Communication Disorders in Culturally Diverse Populations (Advances in Linguistics and Communication Studies), IGI Global, →ISBN, page 92:

With the 2000 and 2016 presidential elections being decided by the electoral college rather than the popular vote, the distribution of Latinx is of prime political importance. Latinx are learning that the best defenses against xenophobic laws are U.S. citizenship and the right to vote.

2020, Edwin David Aponte, Miguel A. De La Torre, Introducing Latinx Theologies, Orbis Books, →ISBN:

The following section seeks to deepen our understanding of the heterogeneity of Latinxes.

2020, Desiree D. Zerquera, Jasmine Haywood, Martín De Mucha, “More Than Nuance: Recognizing and Serving the Diversity of the Latinx Community”, in Robert T. Teranishi, Bach Mai Dolly Nguyen, Cynthia M. Alcantar, Edward R. Curammeng, editors, Measuring Race: Why Disaggregating Data Matters for Addressing Educational Inequality (James A. Banks, editor, Multicultural Education), Teachers College Press, →ISBN, part II (Unmasking Educational Inequality Through Disaggregated Data), page 157:

Recent national elections launched millions of young people, women, working people, LGBTQIA+ people; those concerned about the environment; Blacks, Latinxes, and immigrants fighting voter suppression; and others into electoral politics, movement building, and community organizing.

2021, Nicholas Freudenberg, “From Now to Next: How to Build a Movement for Another World”, in At What Cost: Modern Capitalism and the Future of Health, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 298:

GARCÍA I think that's such a great way of thinking about some of the critical issues that we're facing today as Latino/Latina/Latinxes, however you identify yourself, in the United States.

2021, Michael M. Chemers, editor, The Theatre of Luis Valdez, Routledge, →ISBN:

While Farrakhan’s body gains its meaning through relationship to the Wheel, his true “mother,” Farrakhan is connected to the meaning of black women’s bodies and to all “black” people’s bodies—black in all the colors and “races” of blackness—historically, Native Americans, Asians, Latinxes, and the people of African descent, among whom African Americans are most significant.

2022, Stephen C. Finley, In and Out of This World: Material and Extraterrestrial Bodies in the Nation of Islam, Duke University Press, →ISBN:

Latinxes often view their achievements as being dependent on the outcome of others.

2022, Bryan Powell, Gareth Dylan Smith, editors, Places and Purposes of Popular Music Education: Perspectives from the Field, Intellect, →ISBN:

The handbook authors draw on their methodological expertise and demonstrate in their individual chapters how Latinx are crafting lived theologies of liberation through their words, actions, and embodied faith. […] Reimagining Christianity and its theological constructs, and proclaiming what it can be for US Latinx, as well as demonstrating what this looks like, is at the heart of all of the chapters.

2022, Kristy Nabhan-Warren, “Introduction: Una Historia de perseverancia y resiliencia pueblo (A People’s History of Perseverance and Resilience)”, in The Oxford Handbook of Latinx Christianities in the United States, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 4:

(chiefly US, sometimes proscribed, sometimes offensive, see usage notes) A Latin person (of any gender); a Latino or Latina.


content warning

en-noun

content warning (plural content warnings)


conservative correctness

Coined by John Wilson, author of The Myth of Political Correctness: The Conservative Attack on Higher Education (1995), as a response to political correctness.

A manner of action and rhetoric that is inoffensive to rightists.


manspread

en-verb

manspread (third-person singular simple present manspreads, present participle manspreading, simple past and past participle manspread)

manspreads (present singular third-person)
manspreading (participle present)
manspread (participle past)
manspread (past)

(informal, derogatory, usually of a man) To splay one's legs open whilst sitting on public transport, thus occupying more than one seat.


WOC

the contributions of WOC to the development of rock and roll

Initialism of woman of color or women of color.


MOC

masculine of center
masculine of center#English


stochastic terrorism

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

Coined by Gordon Woo. stochastic + terrorism

All of this fits with what the anonymous blogger G2G had to say in his expanded definition of stochastic terrorism: “you heat up the waters and stir the pot, knowing full well that sooner or later a lone wolf will pop up and do the deed. The fact that it will happen is as predictable as the fact that a heated pot of water will eventually boil. But the exact time and place of each incident will remain as random as the appearance of the first bubbles in the boiling pot."

2017, Clayton Delery, Out for Queer Blood:

How does stochastic terrorism unfold in the course of real-world events? We propose a practical description of stochastic terrorism as an interactive process between the originator of a message, its amplifiers, and one of more ultimate receivers.

2021 October, Molly Amman, J. Reid Meloy, “Stochastic Terrorism: A Linguistic and Psychological Analysis”, in Perspectives on Terrorism, →ISSN, page 3:

Trump is playing a dangerous game, and there is a name for it: Stochastic terrorism. The cries for vengeance and violent retribution from the leader of the MAGA movement aren’t a message to anyone in specific but rather a bat signal to everyone who can hear his voice, whether it’s armed and troubled young men like Martinez or the Jacksonville gunman, or the angry mob that responded on Jan. 6, 2021, after Trump tweeted, “Will be wild!”

2023, Will Bunch, “A MAGA gunman in New Mexico and ‘the end of politics’ in America”, in The Philadelphia Inquirer:

(neologism, sociology, social media) The use of mass public communication, usually against a particular individual or group, which

Incites or inspires acts of terrorism which are statistically probable but happen seemingly at random,


power distance

(sociology, politics) A measure of the willingness of individuals to accept the unequal distribution of power within a society or organization.


cis privilege

(LGBT, neologism) The social advantage enjoyed by those who are cisgender or cissexual.


unwoke

Finally, there came his involvement with Markle. […] a woman of colour and a feminist whose presence in his life would soon require that he forcefully denounce racism and sexism in the British press (and, I trust, among his more un-woke friends and relations).

2018 May 5, Margo Jefferson, “No Cinderella: Margo Jefferson on the real Meghan Markle”, in The Guardian:

Today’s culture war is being waged not between religion and secularism but between groups that the Catholic writer Matthew Schmitz has described as “the woke and the unwoke.”

2022 June 2, Nate Hochman, “What Comes After the Religious Right?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(colloquial, chiefly Canada, US) Not woke, especially in social justice contexts.


folx

Variant of folks. While the word was already gender-neutral, the suffix -x is a deliberate social signal of awareness of sexual minorities. Compare English Latinx.

I presume yoᵣ lo. will fynde to be very stronge besides the qualitie of the peticonars to be lookte vppon, whoe if they be noe other then as folx [also fox] is stilde mear mariners, it cannot promise muche of their extraordinarie performancis, as hath bin made appeare formerlye in this perticuler designe, [...]

G. T. C[lark], R. O. J. (1862 July 5) “Some Account of the Parishes of St. Nicholas and St. Lythan (continued)”, in Archaeologia Cambrensis, number xxxi, London, page 192

De kommitte told me dere wus a great gedderin ob de culored folx at Brudder Jonson's Eatin House, [...]

1857, Julius Caesar Hannibal, Black Diamonds, Or, Humor, Satire, and Sentiment, page 183:

If some do, da hypocrites, and dat don't militate 'gains de siety; for cause da some hypocrites, dat proves dat some good folx.

1879, M. Star, in The American Temperance Cyclopaedia of History (Joseph Beaumont Wakeley), page 185, ostensibly quoting one Missa Param

Eye dialect spelling of folks, representing African-American Vernacular English.


BIPOC

Adaptation of POC. Appeared on social media circa 2013.

While BIPOC come disproportionately from immigrant, lower income social experiences, this cannot account for all people. […] The idea that all BIPOC know “what whiteness is about” presumes that all of us go through institutions in the same way and are aware in the same way.

2015, Alyssa Teekah, This is What a Feminist Slut Looks Like, Demeter Press, →ISBN:

Keep yourself educated on the issues, follow BIPOC, LGBTQIA, and other marginalized groups' pages.

2017, Libby Chamberlain, Pantsuit Nation, page 149:

There’s also a roughly 29 percent brand deal pay gap between white and BIPOC influencers, and that number expands to 35 percent when you look at just white and Black creators.

2022 December 15, Madeline Howard, “The Influencers Are Not Alright”, in Women's Health:

(neologism) Acronym of black, indigenous, or (other) person of color (singular) or black, indigenous, and (other) people of color (plural).


get woke, go broke

Attributed to American author John Ringo.

According to Ringo, the convention then pushed its conservative members out of its planning committee, attendance dropped over years, and it’s now defunct. “Get woke, go broke,” he says of any organization who bows to SJW pressure.

2018 April 17, Jon del Arroz, “Author John Ringo Responds to SJW Assault That Led to Sci-Fi Convention Ban”, in Dangerous, archived from the original on 2018-04-17:

Get woke, go broke isn’t just about money, it’s about credibility and truth. These people have been broken by their own pride, their sense of entitlement, and their own disdain of anyone who does not agree with them.

2018 May 19, David Prentice, “Code Red: The Coming Eruption”, in American Thinker:

This led to the biting critical slogan “Get woke, go broke” to characterise the commercial failure of “woke” (“politically enlightened”) policies in an open marketplace.

2019, Alexander Adams, Culture War: Art, Identity Politics and Cultural Entryism:

(informal, neologism, politics) Businesses that focus on social activism to align themselves with social justice are liable to lose customers.

éveillé mais fauché

businesses that attempt to align themselves with social justice causes are liable to lose customers

trop de politiquement correct c’est économiquement incorrect


cissplain

cissplain (third-person singular simple present cissplains, present participle cissplaining, simple past and past participle cissplained)

cissplains (present singular third-person)
cissplaining (participle present)
cissplained (participle past)
cissplained (past)

Don’t ask us about transgenderism only to cissplain how we’re still “really” our birth sex and always will be.

2012, Natalie Reed, "How To Ask A Trans Person Questions Without Being Insensitive About It", quoted in Benjamin Zimmer, Jane Solomon, & Charles E. Carson, "Among the New Words", American Speech, Volume 89, Issue 4 (2014), page 480

(colloquial, derogatory, chiefly Internet) To explain transgender issues, people or behavior to a trans person (as a cis person) in a condescending manner, presuming the listener’s inferior understanding.


black lives matter

Originally used in the form of the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on social media (2013), protesting against the deaths of African Americans at the hands of the police.

police brutality
police brutality#English

(politics, originally US) A rallying call and statement of protest, concerning police brutality and racially motivated violence against black people.

黒人の命は大切 (こくじんのいのちは大切たいせつ, kokujin no inochi wa taisetsu) (the most common media translation)


check your privilege

The idea that the dominant lack the tools to recognize their role in systems of oppression is currently in the cultural ascendant. It underpins the instruction to ‘check your privilege’.

2017, Clare Chambers, “Ideology and Normativity”, in Aristotelian Society, →DOI:

Although many privileged groups may recognize the disadvantage of another group, for instance the underrepresentation of individuals from working-class backgrounds in elite occupations such as law and banking, they may not recognize or accept their own “over-privilege.” The objective of such training would be to get advantaged employees to check their power and privilege, and reflect on this alongside other components of socioeconomic inequality, such as race, gender, faith, and sexuality.

2017, “Integrating Talent and Diversity Management”, in The Oxford Handbook of Talent Management, Oxford University Press, →DOI:

(as imperative, with to-infinitive) Used to urge someone to examine their own speech and actions for bias or presumption due to social privilege and to curb or check any such bias or presumption.

tarkista etuoikeutesi

used to urge someone to examine their speech and actions


wokie

Like Marxists, wokies are millenarians, working for a magical tomorrow that owes nothing either to past practice or to human frailties.

2021 June 6, Daniel Hannan, “Communism is evolving. But the new version is no more toxic than the old one”, in The Daily Telegraph:

(neologism, slang, usually derogatory) A person who is woke (aware of social-justice issues).


wokeism

en-noun

wokeism (countable and uncountable, plural wokeisms)

→ Dutch: wokisme

→ French: wokisme

From woke (“left-wing on social justice issues”) + -ism (forms names of movements, doctrines, etc.).

suf

2021, 23 June, The Daily Telegraph (p. 19): David Goodhart, Has wokeism crushed the working class?

(uncountable) The ideology of wokeness, of holding social-justice-oriented or left-wing views or attitudes, especially in a way that is deemed overzealous, performative, or insincere.


pick-me

Alongside being called a “pick me” for watching sports, female athletes or even scholars are often called tryhards or told to just go back to the kitchen.

2021, Veronica Preaskom, "Gender Inequalities and the Lack of Support", Oakton Outlook (Oakton High School, Vienna, VA), May 2021, page 34

She sings against the mistakes of her husband, as in “Lemonade,” sharing his missteps with her fans, and this angers women stuck under the whims of men — the pick mes as the internet calls them.

2022 August 19, Annette Ejiofer, “Beyoncé is your bully’s favourite target and I know why”, in Toronto Star:

So, she uses her clothes to try to assert herself, to show that she is somehow different (even if her actions suggest otherwise) in a “pick me” sort of way.

2022 December 11, Mabel Banfield-Nwachi, “What The White Lotus gets wrong with Portia’s Gen-Z wardrobe”, in The Guardian:

(slang, derogatory) Synonym of pick-me girl.

Pick-mes are ideal for the role of the token minority friend since they often fall in line with racist beliefs used against their own community.

2020, Danica Seto, "White People, Please Pick Me", Overachiever Magazine, September 2020 (link)

The most disgusting act I've seen from a "pick me" is when they'd bring others down or betray the ones who cared for them all in the name of "being accepted."

2020 November 1, Marissa Foster, “Stop being a 'pick me' person to fit in”, in Pepperpot, Georgetown, Guyana, page 20:

A “pick-me” person is desperate for acceptance from a particular group and will do whatever it takes to gain access to certain social circles and remain there.

2022, Shreya Joshi, "Ghislaine Maxwell and the pathological pick-me syndrome", The Medium (University of Toronto Mississauga, 17 January 2022, page 6

(slang, derogatory, by extension) A person who acts against the interests of their own (typically marginalized) group in the hope of obtaining majority favour.


Red Power

Once again—faced not with the religious fervor of the Ghost Dancers but with the political rage of the Red Power activists—the white establishment reacted with uncertainty, and a show of force.

1973 March 4, John Kifner, “The Ghosts Dance Once Again at Wounded Knee”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(US, historical) A social movement led by Native American youth to demand self-determination for Native Americans in the United States.


Black Power

From Richard Wright's book Black Power (1954), describing his travels to the Gold Coast and the rise of Pan-Africanism. In a US context later popularized by Stokely Carmichael.

Coordinate term: Red Power

Meanwhile, Black Power groups such as SNCC and the Black Panthers were voicing support for the Arabs against Israel. This sometimes looked like a mere matter of black nationalism; after all, Egypt was a part of Africa, and black nationalist literature sometimes seemed to identify the Arabs as blacks fighting the white Israelis.

1970 June 8, Tom Wolfe, “Radical Chic: That Party at Lenny's”, in New York Magazine:

I dey talk of Black power, I say (Water, him no get enemy!)

1975, Fela Kuti (lyrics and music), “Water No Get Enemy”, in Expensive Shit:

“Black Power” quickly became the controversial slogan for a movement that was largely perceived as rejecting the civil rights movement's nonviolent tactics and goals of integration in favor of a new ethos of black identity, self-defense and separatism.

2006 June 19, Peniel E. Joseph, “Black Power's Quiet Side”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

A slogan and movement supporting Black self-determination and sometimes separatism, especially in the US in the 1960s and 1970s.

Richard Wright (author)
Stokely Carmichael


anti-SJW

en-adj

anti-SJW (comparative more anti-SJW, superlative most anti-SJW)

more anti-SJW (comparative)
most anti-SJW (superlative)

social justice warrior
social justice warrior

(Internet slang, politics) Opposed to social justice warriors.


gay liberation

(politics) An activist movement in the late 1960s to 1980s that advocates better treatment for gay men and lesbian women.


Atheism Plus

Coined by blogger Jey McCreight in 2012.

(historical) A short-lived movement, active in the 2010s, that aimed to encourage atheists to address social justice issues in addition to religious ones during their activism.


silence is violence

(21st century) Inaction or indifference towards violence aimed at oppressed groups is tantamount to direct violence against those groups.


Invasion Day

From the fact that Australia Day, which commemorated the beginning British colonization, also marks the invasion and oppression against Aboriginals.

(derogatory, typically in Aboriginal use) Australia Day.


savarna

From Hindi सवर्ण (savarṇ), derived from Sanskrit सवर्ण (savarṇa, “same colour, same caste”).

der

(India, Hinduism) A member of the Savarna gotra (lineage) of the Brahmin caste.


savarna

en-adj

savarna (comparative more savarna, superlative most savarna)

more savarna (comparative)
most savarna (superlative)

(India, Hinduism) From the four varnas (social castes) in Hinduism.


QTBIPOC

Initialism of queer or/and trans black, indigenous, or/and (other) person/people of color.


power gap

(sociology, business) The difference between two people that causes one person to treat the other person badly, because the other person is seen as lower than the first.


power dynamics

(sociology, politics) Methods used by different groups of people to influence or control each other.


transplain

en-verb

transplain (third-person singular simple present transplains, present participle transplaining, simple past and past participle transplained)

transplains (present singular third-person)
transplaining (participle present)
transplained (participle past)
transplained (past)

When you lead with story instead of education, then it becomes absorbed emotionally and intuitively so you don't really have to explain things. I don't think people respond as well to being transplained.

2015, Rhys Ernst, quoted in Mehera Bonner, "Rhys Ernst on the Pop Culture Trans Movement", Marie Claire, 21 August 2015

The “they” I’m referring to is not transgender people. (Though the bullies will pretend that it is.) I’m referring to the “trans activists” — some sinister, most joyless, and more than a few who don’t even identify as transgender themselves — who delight in “transplaining” to the rest of us the rules of this new, glittering utopia, where spaces must be shared, safeguards dismantled, disagreement decreed to be hate speech, and women must not be allowed to gather to discuss laws that will affect them.

2018 October 1, Lucy Bannerman, “Trans movement has been hijacked by bullies and trolls”, in The Times, UK:

"It's all about the lens to me," Escola continues. "A lot of culture and art is created with the straight audience in mind, gay-splaining and transsplaining to a straight audience. Like, 'We are human. Look, we cry just like regular people! And you're a good person because you cried when we cried.'"

2021, Cole Escola, quoted in Meredith Blake, "Contains Multitudes", Los Angeles Times, 21 January 2021

(colloquial, usually derogatory, chiefly Internet) To explain transgender issues to a cis person (as a trans person or ally), especially in a condescending, heavy-handed, or preachy manner.


femsplainer

(informal) One (especially a woman) who femsplains.


Hollywoke

Hollywoke is hurting my country, my culture, and the movies I hold so dear. The industry that gave me so much joy for so very long has lost its mojo, if not its fractured soul. Let's hope it's not too late to save it.

2022, Christian Toto, Virtue Bombs: How Hollywood Got Woke and Lost Its Soul:

(derogatory) The Hollywood film industry, perceived as enforcing social justice ideology on its audience.

M-She-U

Marvel films being perceived by fans as overtly left-wing


status quo warrior

en-noun

status quo warrior (plural status quo warriors)

The SJW approach seems to have inspired a reaction from an equally impassioned group, the so-called “Status Quo Warriors” or SQWs [...]

2019, Applying Wisdom to Contemporary World Problems, Springer International Publishing, →ISBN, Hate Begets Hate; Violence Begets Violence, page 159:

Scratch a critic of social justice warriors and a status quo warrior bleeds.

2020, John Faithful Hamer, Social Distancing: Poems and Aphorisms, Likeville Books:

(neologism, derogatory, politics) A person who zealously promotes or defends socially static or regressive policies; the antithesis of social justice warrior.


ally cookie

Some argue, of course, that these men are simply trying to 'get in good' with their wives and girlfriends or earn 'ally cookies.' They accuse male feminists of faking their interest in the movement in order to impress their wives […]

2018, Megan Hussey, Feminist Activism 101:

Ally Cookies: Praise or other rewards for “not being racist.” Usually sought out by people with white privilege performing optical allyship.

2020, Layla Saad, Me and White Supremacy:

Even if they had never experienced racism in their daily lives, they wanted to feel like they did, through her. Sally, who lived on a farm in Nebraska, wanted to know what she was missing and found comfort that she would never experience it. And then shared the video on her platform for ally cookies.

(derogatory) A notional reward said to be desired by a person who engages in performative social justice on behalf of a marginalized person or group.


transplainer

(derogatory) A transgender person who explains transgender issues to cisgender people, often in a condescending way.


successor ideology

Many political liberals have traded in classical liberal values for what writer Wesley Yang calls the "successor ideology," commonly known as woke ideology. It's an ideology that claims to have the absolute truth about why there's disparity in the world and, hence, overrides the need for societal debate about such matters.

2022, David L. Bernstein, Woke Antisemitism: How a Progressive Ideology Harms Jews:

Variously identified as "woke," as an applied form of "critical race theory," or as a likely "successor ideology" to liberalism, this movement vows to remake society in a radical manner. To do so, many of its most vocal advocates are willing to rethink fundamental principles, like the focus on individuals over groups, on which liberal democracies have traditionally been built.

2022, Yascha Mounk, The Great Experiment: How to Make Diverse Democracies Work:

An alternative term to 'woke' that has utility as a historical place marker is 'the successor ideology'. The phrase was coined by the US writer Wesley Yang to characterize a chapter in the evolution of left-wing thought that emerged from the traditional political liberalism of the post-Cold War era and is in large part a reaction against it, but that doesn't posit much by way of an alternative programme.

2023, Rafael Behr, Politics: A Survivor's Guide:

(politics) A proposed emergent ideology within liberal or left-wing political movements in the West, centered around intersectionality, social justice and identity politics, and potentially supplanting the conventional liberal values of pluralism, freedom of speech, and color blindness.


black liberation

Investigator Wheeler commented brieﬂy concerning the activity of the Progressive Labor Party in circulating inflammatory literature during the Watts riot. PLP distributed posters and ﬂyers titled: “Don’t be a sucker!” (This pamphlet asked the question: “ISN’T THIS A DECLARATION OF WAR AGAINST THE AFRO-AMERICAN PEOPLE BY THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT?”); “BLACK LIBERATION—NOW!” ; “THE NEED FOR REVOLUTION ” ; “WANTED FOR MURDER—Parker the Cop in Watts” (This poster was patterned after the PLP’s “Wanted for Murder—Gilligan the Cop” poster which was distributed during the Harlem riot of 1964.); and, during the Deadwyler affair, “WANTED for the MURDER of Leonard Deadwyler—‘BOVA—the COP.’”

1965, House Un-American Activities Committee, Annual Report For The Year 1965, page 63:

(chiefly US politics) The achievement of equal rights and status for black people, particularly as seen as freedom from historic and structural oppression.


ALOHA

Aboriginal Lands of Hawaiian Ancestry
w:Aboriginal Lands of Hawaiian Ancestry

(US politics, historical) Acronym of Aboriginal Lands of Hawaiian Ancestry (a Hawaiian organization seeking reparations for Native Hawaiians).


M-She-U

(fandom slang, derogatory, Internet slang) The Marvel Cinematic Universe, perceived by fans to be too feminist or left-wing.

Hollywoke

Hollywood films being perceived as overtly left-wing


white women's tears

A few weeks ago, I had lunch with a childhood friend. White girl from the Southside of Chicago, she's now a professor here in NE. Our friendship ended at 18. Why? White woman tears. I told her she made me feel like a charity case and it hurt her feelings.

2018 April 17, Shay Stewart Bouley (@blackgirlinmain), Twitter:

Picture it: a white woman feels challenged or uncomfortable about something a Black person said or did. Instead of using her words, she cries. Instantly, no matter what the initial catalyst of the situation is, she ends up being appeased, pacified and pampered. Lawd knows we’ve all seen virtual white woman tears shut down conversation, even if she was the instigator of conflict. […]

2018 April 17, “About the Weary Weaponizing of White Women Tears”, in Awesomely Luvvie:

This attempt to separate the personal and political is central to white women’s tears as a strategic device. We demand to be treated as ‘just a person’ who should be granted the benefit of the doubt, who exists outside racialised structures and power relations even as our actions perpetuate them.

2021 February 5, Alison Phippshttps, “White tears, white rage: Victimhood and (as) violence in mainstream feminism”, in European Journal of Cultural Studies, volume 24, number 1, Springer, →DOI, →ISSN, page 85 of 81–93:

A display of tears from a white woman that brings attention to her feelings and sense of victimhood in response to criticism by black women.