bigotry

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Look up bigotry in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Bigotry

A bigot is a person who is intolerant of or takes offense to the opinions, lifestyles or identities differing from his or her own, and bigotry is the corresponding attitude or mindset. Bigot is often used as a pejorative term to describe a person who is obstinately devoted to prejudices, especially when these views are either challenged, or proven to be false or not universally applicable or acceptable.

The origin of the word bigot and bigoterie in English dates back to at least 1598, via Middle French, and started with the sense of "religious hypocrite". Forms of bigotry may have a related ideology or world views.

Etymology

The exact origin of the word is unknown, but it may have come from the German bei and gott, or the English by God. William Camden wrote that the Normans were first called bigots, when their Duke Rollo, who when receiving Gisla, daughter of King Charles, in marriage, and with her the investiture of the dukedom, refused to kiss the king's foot in token of subjection - unless the king would hold it out for that specific purpose. When being urged to do it by those present, Rollo answered hastily "No, by God", whereupon the King, turning about, called him bigot, which then passed from him to his people.^[1] This is quite probably fictional, as Gisla is unknown in Frankish sources. It is true, however, that the French used the term bigot to abuse the Normans.^[2].

The 12th century Charlotte B J Anglo-Norman author Wace claimed that bigot was an insult which the French used against the Normans, but it is unclear whether or not this is how it entered the English language.^[3]

According to Egon Friedell, "bigot" is of the same root as "visigoth". In Vulgar Latin, the initial v transformed into b (a phenomenon today encountered in Iberian languages, such as Spanish and Portuguese; visi had truncated into bi in Vulgar Latin (a phenomenon common in French and Portuguese).^[1][2]

Both the Spanish word bigote and the Portuguese word bigode mean moustache, probably because Visigoths had moustaches, and when germanic peoples were fighting as mercenaries for the spaniards they would swear "by God" while kissing a finger put vertically to their lips (the finger forming a cross with their lips). Spaniards thought they were pointing to their moustaches. Since both Normans and Goths were Germanic peoples, the more quickly assimilated Franks might well have referred to the Normans as "Visigoths" with the expression bigot. This claim is also supported by the fact that the word bigoth for Visigoths appears in the Medieval Latin language.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Purist

External links

• Etymology of the word bigot

Notes

1. ^{^} This article incorporates content from the 1728 Cyclopaedia, a publication in the public domain. [1]
2. ^{^} Word Histories And Mysteries: From Abracadabra to Zeus. Houghton Mifflin Company. 2004. ISBN 0-618-45450-0. p 24.
3. ^{^} Ayto, John. Dictionary of Word Origins: The Histories of More Than 8,000 English-Language Words. New York: Arcade Publishing. 1990.

References