apartheid · noun — the policy of racial segregation in South Africa from 1948 to 1994. It carries an Arena rating of 1545, earned across 63 head-to-head judged battles.
Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, apartheid ranks #33 of 17,188 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #124 of 17,176 for Most Incisive Words, #194 of 17,130 for Most Ponderous Words, #223 of 17,171 for Scariest Words.
apartheid is pronounced /əˈpɑːtheɪt/.
Why “apartheid” is a great word
A legally codified and comprehensive state system of racial hierarchy, segregation, and oppression. From Afrikaans apartheid, literally meaning 'apartness' or 'separateness' (from Dutch apart 'separate' + -heid '-hood'). Unlike "segregation," a general term for enforced separation, or "discrimination," the unjust treatment of categories of people, apartheid denotes the specific, totalizing architecture of a society engineered by law to classify, separate, and subjugate. It is the concrete of a dividing wall, the ink of a passbook stamp, and the barren geography of a designated "homeland"—the cold, bureaucratic machinery of human division made mundane, inescapable, and absolute.
❧ Essay by Lexicurio’s AI · definition, etymology & citations from published sources
Etymology
Borrowed from Afrikaans apartheid (literally “separateness, apartness”) (1929 in a South African socio-political context), from Afrikaans apart (“separate”) + suffix -heid, cognate of English -hood.
noun
- The policy of racial segregation in South Africa from 1948 to 1994.e.g.“She don't care about the rest at all / She's got a system they call apartheid / It keeps a brother in a subjection” — 1988, Eddy Grant, “Gimme Hope Jo'anna”:
- Any similar policy of racial segregation or separation and discrimination, particularly when in favor of a minority rule.e.g.“The 1973 Apartheid Convention conferred universal jurisdiction to the state signatories to prosecute those who commit apartheid.”
- A policy or situation of segregation based on some specified attribute.
verb
- To impose a policy of segregation of groups of people, especially one based on race.e.g.“Yes, apartheiding the apartheiders, is what the rest of the world is doing.” — 1986, Stanlake John Thompson Samkange, On Trial for that U.D.I.: A Novel, page 79:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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