bigotry

Pronunciation

• /ˈbɪɡ.ə.tɹi/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French bigoterie (“sanctimoniousness”),^[2][3][4] recorded in Middle French about 1450 and formed from bigot with the suffix -erie.^[2][4] The Shorter Oxford, the ODE and Dictionary.com see it rather as formed in English from bigot and the suffix -ry, partly through or reinforced by the French word.^[5][6][7] The Middle French bigot meant a person of excessive religious zeal or a religious hypocrite (15th century), and is of uncertain origin.^[2][8] The OED mentions the idea that it comes ultimately from the English oath by God or a similar Germanic expression, but notes that there is no evidence for it, and that it is not clear whether the word is connected with Old French bigot, an insulting name given to the Normans in the 12th century.^[2][9][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The quality or condition of a bigot; obstinate or unreasonable attachment to a belief, practice or faction: 1616, in Patrick Hay's Vision of Balaams Asse.^[2][10] Merriam-Webster gives 1632 as its first known use,^[4] and Etymonline dates the word to the 1670s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word followed the meaning of bigot, which in English first meant a sanctimonious person or a religious hypocrite (1590s) and was extended in the 1680s to people holding other than religious opinions.^[3] The Historical Thesaurus files it both under religious sectarianism and under bias and prejudice of opinion.^[10] From 1680 it was also used as a count noun, for an act or a kind of bigotry.^[2][5] Johnson (1755) defined it as "blind zeal; prejudice; unreasonable warmth in favour of party or opinions", used with to, and quoted a writer who spoke of "a bigotry to our own tenets".^[11] In current use it means intolerant prejudice in general, including prejudice against other groups of people.^[12][4]

Timeline

• c. 1450 – Middle French bigoterie.^[2]
• 1616 – obstinate attachment to a belief; intolerance.^[2][10]
• 1632 – Merriam-Webster's first known use.^[4]
• 1670s – Etymonline's date.^[3]
• 1680 – an act or instance of bigotry.^[2][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. Stubborn, unreasoning attachment to one's own beliefs and opinions, with intolerance of those who hold others.^[4][2][5]
2. The attitudes and behaviour of a bigot; prejudice against people of another group: The campaign set out to fight bigotry in the workplace.^[12][4]
3. An act, belief or kind of bigotry (plural bigotries).^[2][5][12]

Related words

• bigot
• bigoted

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b c d Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins