whiteness
English
Etymology
From Middle English whitenesse, whitnesse, whytnesse, hwitnesse, from Old English hwītnes (“whiteness”), equivalent to white + -ness.
Pronunciation
Noun
whiteness (countable and uncountable, plural whitenesses)
- The state of being white (all senses).
- (sociology, dysphemistic) The collective of White/Europid people and their historical heritage.
- 2009, Terrance MacMullan, Habits of Whiteness: A Pragmatist Reconstruction (page 182)
- A pragmatist critique of whiteness seeks a middle ground between eliminativism and essentialism; […] Du Bois explained why the habits of whiteness are so toxic: they encourage violence, undermine the formation and sustenance of community, put money before humanity, and leave white folk culturally undernourished and rootless.
- 2013, Shelley M. Park, Mothering Queerly, Queering Motherhood (page 42)
- As a white body, I have not had to face my whiteness; insofar as the world is oriented around whiteness, I rarely have to turn my attention back onto myself, as do the black and brown bodies that are “stopped” or “held up” for being out of place […]
- 2009, Terrance MacMullan, Habits of Whiteness: A Pragmatist Reconstruction (page 182)
Antonyms
Derived terms
Translations
state of being white
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Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms suffixed with -ness
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Sociology
- English dysphemisms