bigot
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Etymology
From French bigot (“a sanctimonious person; a religious hypocrite”), from Middle French bigot, from Old French bigot, of disputed origin. It is most often believed to have derived from the identical Old French derogatory term bigot applied to the overly religious Normans, said to be known for frequently swearing Middle English bi God (“by God”) (compare Old English bī god, Middle High German bī got, Middle Dutch bi gode), which is also thought to be the origin of the surname Bigott, Bygott. (Compare the French use of "goddamns" to refer to the English in Joan of Arc's time, and les sommobiches (see son of a bitch) during World War I). From meaning "someone overly religious" it came to mean "someone overly devoted to their own religious opinion", and then to its current sense.[1]
The French Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales supports the Germanic origin theory above. Liberman however opines that this has "too strong a taste of a folk etymological guess invented in retrospect" and prefers Grammont et al.'s theory that it derives from Albigot (“inhabitant of Albi”),[2] named after the commune in southern France where Catharism (also known as Albigensianism[3]) is thought to have originated. Online Etymology Dictionary, however, does not list Grammont and Liberman's theory among their possible origins.
Pronunciation
Noun
bigot (plural bigots)
- One who is narrow-mindedly devoted to their own ideas and groups, and intolerant of (people of) differing ideas, races, genders, religions, politics, etc.
- 2023 April 13, Aletha Adu, Jessica Elgot, Kiran Stacey, “Senior Conservatives hit out at Suella Braverman’s ‘racist rhetoric’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
- A former senior minister from Boris Johnson’s government told the Guardian they believed Braverman was a “real racist bigot”.
- (obsolete) One who is overly pious in matters of religion, often hypocritically or else superstitiously so.
- 1653, Urquhart, translating Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais, book 1:
- He is no bigot or hypocrite, he is not torn and divided betwixt reality and appearance, no wretch of a rugged and peevish disposition, but honest, jovial, resolute, and a good fellow.
- 1664, Henry More, A Modest Enquiry Into the Mystery of Iniquity, page 436:
- Thus one part of their Church becomes Sotts and Bigots; and the other that behold this Scene of things, though they profess themselves of their Church, become a company of profane Atheists and clancular Deriders of all Religion. […] Nay it is a question whether those that do more superstitiously cleave to them, doe it not rather in a kind of confusion and obstupefaction of mind out of fear and suspicion, then any determinate assurance or firm belief of the things they outwardly profess.
- 1820, [Charles Robert Maturin], Melmoth the Wanderer: A Tale. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Company, and Hurst, Robinson, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 240:
- Donna Clara was a woman of a cold and grave temper, with all the solemnity of a Spaniard, and all the austerity of a bigot.
- 1653, Urquhart, translating Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais, book 1:
Derived terms
Translations
one who is narrow-mindedly devoted to his or her own ideas and groups
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person who is overly pious in matters of religion
translations to be checked
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See also
References
- Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “bigot”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
Further reading
- “bigot”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “bigot”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “bigot”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
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