"white man's burden" meaning in English

See white man's burden in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Etymology: From the poem The White Man's Burden (published 1899) by Rudyard Kipling. Head templates: {{head|en|noun|head=white man's burden}} white man's burden
  1. The supposed responsibility of European people to govern and care for their colonial subjects. Wikipedia link: Rudyard Kipling, The White Man's Burden Categories (topical): Imperialism, Racism, White supremacist ideology Translations (supposed responsibility of whites): 白人的负担 (Chinese Mandarin), valkoisen miehen taakka (Finnish), fardeau de l’homme blanc [masculine] (French), den vite mannens börda (Swedish)
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
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        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Imperialism",
          "orig": "en:Imperialism",
          "parents": [
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            "Politics",
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            "Fundamental"
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        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Racism",
          "orig": "en:Racism",
          "parents": [
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            "Discrimination",
            "Society",
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        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "White supremacist ideology",
          "orig": "en:White supremacist ideology",
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        {
          "ref": "1902 January 2, The Evening Telegraph, Charters Towers, page 3, column 2:",
          "text": "Uncle Sam has found his box of tricks heavy, and is having a whiff before going on with his white man's burden to the end.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1915 October 6, Lewis Ransome Freeman, “Germany's Exit From Africa”, in The World's Work, volume XXX:",
          "text": "Germany's appearance as a colonizing power in Africa was greeted in no unfriendly spirit by either France or Great Britain. Each of the latter felt that it was already possessed of about all it could comfortably look after, and both realized that another shoulder under \"The White Man's Burden\" in the Dark Continent might make the load easier for all.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
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          "ref": "1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 609:",
          "text": "So into at least one state troops poured, a battalion of decent National Service lads, to continue to carry, posthumously as it must be supposed, the White Man's Burden.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
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        "The supposed responsibility of European people to govern and care for their colonial subjects."
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        [
          "care",
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          "colonial",
          "colonial"
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      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "supposed responsibility of whites",
          "word": "白人的负担"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "supposed responsibility of whites",
          "word": "valkoisen miehen taakka"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "supposed responsibility of whites",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "fardeau de l’homme blanc"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "supposed responsibility of whites",
          "word": "den vite mannens börda"
        }
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Rudyard Kipling",
        "The White Man's Burden"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "white man's burden"
}
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          "ref": "1902 January 2, The Evening Telegraph, Charters Towers, page 3, column 2:",
          "text": "Uncle Sam has found his box of tricks heavy, and is having a whiff before going on with his white man's burden to the end.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1915 October 6, Lewis Ransome Freeman, “Germany's Exit From Africa”, in The World's Work, volume XXX:",
          "text": "Germany's appearance as a colonizing power in Africa was greeted in no unfriendly spirit by either France or Great Britain. Each of the latter felt that it was already possessed of about all it could comfortably look after, and both realized that another shoulder under \"The White Man's Burden\" in the Dark Continent might make the load easier for all.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 609:",
          "text": "So into at least one state troops poured, a battalion of decent National Service lads, to continue to carry, posthumously as it must be supposed, the White Man's Burden.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
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      ],
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    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "supposed responsibility of whites",
      "word": "白人的负担"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "supposed responsibility of whites",
      "word": "valkoisen miehen taakka"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "supposed responsibility of whites",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "fardeau de l’homme blanc"
    },
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      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "supposed responsibility of whites",
      "word": "den vite mannens börda"
    }
  ],
  "word": "white man's burden"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (8a39820 and 4401a4c). 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.

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