miscegenation
/mɪˌsɛd͡ʒ.əˈneɪ.ʃən/
miscegenation means the mixing or blending of race in marriage or breeding, interracial marriage. It carries an Arena rating of 1402, earned across 6 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, miscegenation ranks #1,403 of 17,122 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #1,513 of 17,125 for Most Incisive Words, #2,191 of 17,116 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #2,843 of 17,118 for Most Ponderous Words.
miscegenation is pronounced /mɪˌsɛd͡ʒ.əˈneɪ.ʃən/.
Why “miscegenation” is a great word
The interbreeding or marriage between people considered to be of different racial groups. From Latin miscēre ("to mix") and genus ("race, kind"), with the English suffix -ation; coined in 1864 by American journalist David Goodman Croly as a deliberate political provocation. Unlike "amalgamation," a neutral, metallurgical metaphor, or "multiculturalism," a placid social ideal, "miscegenation" carries the particular poison of its origin: a word invented to stoke fear and cast human affection as biological contamination. It is the sign posted at a state border, the law written in fine print, the whispered accusation in a prejudiced town—a term that reveals less about blood than about the brutal architecture of power and purity erected upon it, where intimacy itself can remain an act of rebellion against a silence that refuses to be broken.
Etymology
Blend of Latin miscēre (“mix”) + Latin genus (“race”) + -ation. Coined by American journalist David Goodman Croly in 1864 and first used in an anonymous pamphlet he coauthored, which claimed to be written by a person who believed in the inherent unity of all racial groups, that marriage between blacks and whites would create a better race, and that the American Civil War was a fight for the latter idea. Later, it was exposed that the pretext of the pamphlet was false and that it had actually been written by a group which hoped to inflame anger, particularly against then-US President Abraham Lincoln who was up for reelection.
Replaced previous amalgamation, from metallurgy.
noun
- The mixing or blending of race in marriage or breeding, interracial marriage.
- A mixing or blending, especially one which is considered to be inappropriate.e.g.“as is clear in the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, it has a horror of any spiritual miscegenation between the human and the natural.”
Words closest in meaning
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