"tree hugger" meaning in English

See tree hugger in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: En-au-tree hugger.ogg Forms: tree huggers [plural]
Etymology: Compound of tree + hugger. Popularized after the 1970's Chipko movement in India, who resorted to actual group hugging of trees in order to prevent deforestation. Tommy James claims that his 1971 song "Draggin' the Line" popularized the phrase. https://americansongwriter.com/meaning-behind-tommy-james-draggin-the-line/ Etymology templates: {{com|en|tree|hugger}} tree + hugger Head templates: {{en-noun}} tree hugger (plural tree huggers)
  1. (slang, derogatory) An environmental campaigner, especially one who aims to restrict logging and especially one who uses dramatic, attention-grabbing methods of obstruction. Tags: derogatory, slang Categories (topical): People Translations (derogatory term for environmental campaigner, anti-logging protester): ituhippi (Finnish), puunhalaaja (Finnish), Baumschmuser [masculine] (German), Baumschmuserin [feminine] (German), trädkramare (Swedish)
    Sense id: en-tree_hugger-en-noun-JlccVszk Disambiguation of People: 45 55 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with German translations, Terms with Swedish translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 92 8 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 93 7 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 93 7 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 95 5 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 71 29 Disambiguation of Terms with German translations: 84 16 Disambiguation of Terms with Swedish translations: 71 29 Disambiguation of 'derogatory term for environmental campaigner, anti-logging protester': 88 12
  2. (slang) A hippie. Tags: slang Categories (topical): People
    Sense id: en-tree_hugger-en-noun-cLPp8iXD Disambiguation of People: 45 55
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: eagle freak, greeniac, lentil-weaver, posy sniffer, prairie fairy, yoghurt-knitter, treehugger, tree-hugger

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

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  "etymology_text": "Compound of tree + hugger. Popularized after the 1970's Chipko movement in India, who resorted to actual group hugging of trees in order to prevent deforestation. Tommy James claims that his 1971 song \"Draggin' the Line\" popularized the phrase. https://americansongwriter.com/meaning-behind-tommy-james-draggin-the-line/",
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          "text": "Coordinate term: bunny hugger"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1999, Mother Jones Magazine (Mar–Apr 1999, page 64)",
          "text": "Animal liberationists like Rosmarino resented the tree huggers' insensitivity to animals and reluctance to risk jail time, while more mainstream environmentalists like AFR's Jeff Berman disagreed with the bunny huggers' wacky morality and in-your-face tactics. The two groups' differences were in full view as they teamed up to parade through Vail last winter."
        }
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        "(slang, derogatory) An environmental campaigner, especially one who aims to restrict logging and especially one who uses dramatic, attention-grabbing methods of obstruction."
      ],
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        "derogatory",
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      "translations": [
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          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "fi",
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        {
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          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "de",
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          "sense": "derogatory term for environmental campaigner, anti-logging protester",
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          ],
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        },
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          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "de",
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          "sense": "derogatory term for environmental campaigner, anti-logging protester",
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        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "sv",
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        }
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        {
          "ref": "2005, Erin Bell, Miss Diagnosed: Unraveling Chronic Stress:",
          "text": "The idea of naturopathic doctors had always formed an image in my mind of old, bearded, tree-huggers who boiled roots and made poultices out of gross things to treat weird people who believed in that \"natural\" stuff.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
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        },
        {
          "ref": "2020, D. L. Kline, Simple Spirituality:",
          "text": "Until fairly recently, even the idea of a MBS connection was dismissed by Western medicine as the province of New Age tree huggers, so it had very little mainstream credibility.",
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        }
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          "text": "Animal liberationists like Rosmarino resented the tree huggers' insensitivity to animals and reluctance to risk jail time, while more mainstream environmentalists like AFR's Jeff Berman disagreed with the bunny huggers' wacky morality and in-your-face tactics. The two groups' differences were in full view as they teamed up to parade through Vail last winter."
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        },
        {
          "ref": "2020, D. L. Kline, Simple Spirituality:",
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      "word": "eagle freak"
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    {
      "word": "greeniac"
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    {
      "word": "lentil-weaver"
    },
    {
      "word": "posy sniffer"
    },
    {
      "word": "prairie fairy"
    },
    {
      "word": "yoghurt-knitter"
    },
    {
      "word": "treehugger"
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      "word": "tree-hugger"
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  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "derogatory term for environmental campaigner, anti-logging protester",
      "word": "ituhippi"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "derogatory term for environmental campaigner, anti-logging protester",
      "word": "puunhalaaja"
    },
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      "code": "de",
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      "sense": "derogatory term for environmental campaigner, anti-logging protester",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
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    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "derogatory term for environmental campaigner, anti-logging protester",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
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    },
    {
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      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "derogatory term for environmental campaigner, anti-logging protester",
      "word": "trädkramare"
    }
  ],
  "word": "tree hugger"
}

Download raw JSONL data for tree hugger meaning in English (4.3kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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