bigot (noun) : a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices
The notion that bigot is primarily synonymous with "racist" is a modern change; traditionally it was just concerned with intolerance of conflicting ideas. I think it was over the political debate about segregation that the idea bigotry transferred to racial attitudes.
(obsolete) One who is overly pious in matters of religion, often hypocritically or else superstitiously so.
the eighteenth century probably dates back to the more obsolete sense of the word
1820 Charles Robert Maturin "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."
Weird takes down this thread. Personally I have never heard/seen bigot being used to describe as defined here. I have always heard it used in the context of intolerance to some group of people. Would never have guessed it’s history.
Frame challenge, I wouldn't say it's common to consider bigot synonymous or nearly synonymous with racist, or at least that has never been my experience. What makes you feel like this is the case?
Racist might be wrong but it's definitely now used for people who are intolerant of other people, usually for identity-politics reasons.
These days you can be bigoted against black or Muslim or gay or transgender people, but not really about Greek statuary or rap music or electric cars or PHP, no matter how strong your opinions on those.
Hrm, in which country? I'm Irish; in modern writing in Ireland and the UK, certainly anything from the last 50 years, it's generally used to mean racists, sexists et al. Wasn't aware there was any English-speaking country which had held onto the archaic meaning, at least as a primary meaning.
(India? Indian English has a few things still in common use which are obsolete in UK English).
Example UK usage from 50 years ago: the "Barry bigot" doll in S3E5 of Monty Python's Flying Circus (1972; it's a wind-up racist doll).
Hmm. I have several times described myself as a "keyboard bigot". That is, I have very strong opinions about what is and is not a good keyboard, and a very strong dislike of bad ones.
I'm questioning whether I should say that now, based on your comment. Could you explain a bit more about what you mean by "intentionally hurtful"? Specifically, intentionally hurtful of whom?
I’m afraid to because I mean specifically in my context and I don’t want to inadvertently police how you communicate. You may not live where I do and the word can hold a different connotation as demonstrated by the original commenter pointing out that bigot was not originally about racism.
I mean that in my neck of the woods, when people say someone is bigoted or is a bigot, it isn’t always about racism, but it’s almost always aggressive.
If I said “oh he’s a keyboard bigot” in this context, I would be attempting to be insulting and harmful towards you.
If you said “oh I’m just a keyboard bigot” it comes off as lighter but my context has me tilting my head in curiosity. It wouldn’t have been a word I’d expect someone to call themselves.
It's a difference of intent. Quite frankly, when I refer to someone as a bigot, I couldn't care less whether they find it hurtful or not; I do absolutely intend to condemn them, though.
> The notion that bigot is primarily synonymous with "racist" is a modern change;
And primarily a US-American one, it seems to me. I wasn’t aware of his change, and the definition marked as “obsolete” above is actually what I think of as the word’s literal, non-metaphorical meaning.
The notion that bigot is primarily synonymous with "racist" is a modern change; traditionally it was just concerned with intolerance of conflicting ideas. I think it was over the political debate about segregation that the idea bigotry transferred to racial attitudes.
(obsolete) One who is overly pious in matters of religion, often hypocritically or else superstitiously so.
the eighteenth century probably dates back to the more obsolete sense of the word
1820 Charles Robert Maturin "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."