Use of the word woke

Woke ( WOHK) is an adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) meaning «alert to racial prejudice and discrimination».^[1][2] Beginning in the 2010s, it came to encompass a broader awareness of social inequalities such as sexism, and has also been used as shorthand for American Left ideas involving identity politics and social justice, such as the notion of white privilege and slavery reparations for African Americans.^[3][4][5]

The phrase stay woke has history in AAVE as far back as the 1930s, in some contexts referring to an awareness of the social and political issues affecting African Americans. The phrase was uttered in lyrics of recordings by Lead Belly in mid 20th century and post-millennium by Erykah Badu.

The term emerged in the 2010s and, increasingly, it also meant not only racial consciousness but also that of gender as well as other discriminated identities, originally in the American context. During the 2014 Ferguson protests, the phrase was popularized by Black Lives Matter (BLM) activists seeking to raise awareness about police shootings of African Americans. After seeing use on Black Twitter, the term woke was increasingly used by white people, often to signal their support for BLM, which some commentators have criticised as cultural appropriation. Initially this wider adoption spread primarily among the young or the millennial generation. As it spread internationally, the term was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2017.

By 2020, however, members of the political center and right wing in several Western countries were using the term woke in an ironic way, as an insult for various progressive or leftist movements and ideologies perceived as overzealous, performative, or insincere. In turn, some commentators came to consider it an offensive term with negative associations to those who promote political ideas involving identity and race. Since then derivative terms such as woke-washing and woke capitalism were coined to describe for example companies who signal support for progressive causes as a substitute for genuine change.

Origins and usage

In some varieties of African-American English, woke is used in place of woken, the usual past participle form of wake.^[8] This has led to the use of woke as an adjective equivalent to awake, which has become mainstream in the United States.^[8][9]

While it is not known when being awake was first used as a metaphor for political engagement and activism, one early example in the United States was the paramilitary youth organization the Wide Awakes, which formed in Hartford, Connecticut in 1860 to support the Republican candidate in the 1860 presidential election, Abraham Lincoln. Local chapters of the group spread rapidly across northern cities in the ensuing months and «triggered massive popular enthusiasm» around the election. The political militancy of the group also alarmed many southerners, who saw in the Wide Awakes confirmation of their fears of northern, Republican political aggression. The support among the Wide Awakes for abolition, as well as the participation of a number of Black men in a Wide Awakes parade in Massachusetts, likely contributed to such anxiety.^[10][11]

20th century

Among the earliest uses of the idea of wokeness as a concept for Black political consciousness came from Jamaican philosopher and social activist Marcus Garvey,^[4] who wrote in 1923, «Wake up Ethiopia! Wake up Africa!»^[4][7]

A 1923 collection of aphorisms, ideas, and other writing by Garvey also adopts this metaphor in the following epigram: «Wake up Ethiopia! Wake up Africa! Let us work towards the one glorious end of a free, redeemed and mighty nation. Let Africa be a bright star among the constellation of nations».^[7][4]

Black American folk singer-songwriter Huddie Ledbetter, a.k.a. Lead Belly, used the phrase «stay woke» as part of a spoken afterward to a 1938 recording of his song «Scottsboro Boys», which tells the story of nine black teenagers and young men falsely accused of raping two white women in Alabama in 1931. In the recording, Lead Belly says he met with the defendant’s lawyer and the young men themselves, and «I advise everybody, be a little careful when they go along through there (Scottsboro) – best stay woke, keep their eyes open.»^[4][12] Aja Romano writes at Vox that this usage reflects «Black Americans’ need to be aware of racially motivated threats and the potential dangers of white America».^[4]

By the mid-20th century, woke had come to mean ‘well-informed’ or ‘aware’,^[13] especially in a political or cultural sense.^[8] The Oxford English Dictionary traces the earliest such usage to a 1962 New York Times Magazine article titled «If You’re Woke You Dig It» by African-American novelist William Melvin Kelley, describing the appropriation of Black slang by white beatniks.^[8]

Woke had gained more political connotations by 1971 when the play Garvey Lives! by Barry Beckham included the line: «I been sleeping all my life. And now that Mr. Garvey done woke me up, I’m gon’ stay woke. And I’m gon help him wake up other black folk.»^[14][15]

2000s and early 2010s, #Staywoke hashtag

Through the 2000s and early 2010s, woke was used either as a term for literal wakefulness, or as slang for suspicions of infidelity.^[4] The latter meaning was used in singer Childish Gambino’s 2016 song «Redbone».^[16] In the 21st century’s first decade, the use of woke encompassed the earlier meaning with an added sense of being «alert to social and/or racial discrimination and injustice».^[8]

This usage was popularized by soul singer Erykah Badu’s 2008 song «Master Teacher»,^[9][13] via the song’s refrain, «I stay woke».^[14] Merriam-Webster defines the expression stay woke in Badu’s song as meaning, «self-aware, questioning the dominant paradigm and striving for something better»; and, although within the context of the song, it did not yet have a specific connection to justice issues, Merriam-Webster credits the phrase’s use in the song with its later connection to these issues.^[9][17]

Songwriter Georgia Anne Muldrow, who composed «Master Teacher» in 2005, told Okayplayer news and culture editor Elijah Watson that while she was studying jazz at New York University, she learned the invocation Stay woke from Harlem alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin, who used the expression in the meaning of trying to «stay woke» because of tiredness or boredom, «talking about how she was trying to stay up – like literally not pass out». In homage, Muldrow wrote stay woke in marker on a T-shirt, which over time became suggestive of engaging in the process of the search for herself (as distinct from, for example, merely personal productivity).^[18]

According to The Economist, as the term woke and the #Staywoke hashtag began to spread online, the term «began to signify a progressive outlook on a host of issues as well as on race».^[19]
In a tweet mentioning the Russian feminist rock group Pussy Riot, whose members had been imprisoned in 2012,^[20][21] Badu wrote: «Truth requires no belief. Stay woke. Watch closely. #FreePussyRiot».^[22][23][24] This has been cited by Know Your Meme as one of the first examples of the #Staywoke hashtag.^[25]

2010s: Black Lives Matter

Following the shooting of Michael Brown in 2014, The phrase stay woke was used by activists of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement to urge awareness of police abuses.^[4][26][25] The BET documentary Stay Woke, which covered the movement, aired in May 2016.^[27] Within the decade of the 2010s, the word woke (the colloquial, passively voiced past participle of wake) obtained the meaning ‘politically and socially aware’^[28] among BLM activists.^[8][26]

Broadening usage

While the term woke initially pertained to issues of racial prejudice and discrimination impacting African Americans, it was appropriated by other activist groups with different causes.^[5]
While there is no single agreed-upon definition of the term, it came to be primarily associated with ideas that involve identity and race and which are promoted by progressives, such as the notion of white privilege or slavery reparations for African Americans.^[29] Vox‘s Aja Romano writes that woke evolved into a «single-word summation of leftist political ideology, centered on social justice politics and critical race theory».^[4] Columnist David Brooks wrote in 2017 that «to be woke is to be radically aware and justifiably paranoid. It is to be cognizant of the rot pervading the power structures.»^[30] Sociologist Marcyliena Morgan contrasts woke with cool in the context of maintaining dignity in the face of social injustice: «While coolness is empty of meaning and interpretation and displays no particular consciousness, woke is explicit and direct regarding injustice, racism, sexism, etc.»^[3]

The term woke became increasingly common on Black Twitter, the community of African American users of the social media platform Twitter.^[16] André Brock, a professor of black digital studies at the Georgia Institute of Technology, suggested that the term proved popular on Twitter because its brevity suited the platform’s 140-character limit.^[16] According to Charles Pulliam-Moore, the term began crossing over into general internet usage as early as 2015.^[31] The phrase stay woke became an Internet meme,^[17] with searches for woke on Google surging in 2015.^[5]

The term has gained popularity amid an increasing leftward turn on various issues among the American Left; this has partly been a reaction to the right-wing politics of U.S. President Donald Trump, who was elected in 2016, but also to a growing awareness regarding the extent of historical discrimination faced by African Americans.^[32] According to Perry Bacon Jr., ideas that have come to be associated with «wokeness» include a rejection of American exceptionalism; a belief that the United States has never been a true democracy; that people of color suffer from systemic and institutional racism; that white Americans experience white privilege; that African Americans deserve reparations for slavery and post-enslavement discrimination; that disparities among racial groups, for instance in certain professions or industries, are automatic evidence of discrimination; that U.S. law enforcement agencies are designed to discriminate against people of color and so should be defunded, disbanded, or heavily reformed; that women suffer from systemic sexism; that individuals should be able to identify with any gender or none; that U.S. capitalism is deeply flawed; and that Trump’s election to the presidency was not an aberration but a reflection of the prejudices about people of color held by large parts of the U.S. population.^[32] Although increasingly accepted across much of the American Left, many of these ideas were nevertheless unpopular among the U.S. population as a whole and among other, especially more centrist, parts of the Democratic Party.^[32]

The term increasingly came to be identified with members of the millennial generation.^[16] In May 2016, MTV News identified woke as being among ten words teenagers «should know in 2016».^[33][16] The American Dialect Society voted woke the slang word of the year in 2017.^[34][35][36] In the same year, the term was included as an entry in Oxford English Dictionary.^[37][8]
By 2019, the term woke was increasingly being used in an ironic sense, as reflected in the books Woke by comedian Andrew Doyle (using the pen name Titania McGrath) and Anti-Woke by columnist Brendan O’Neill.^[38]
By 2022, usage of the term had spread beyond the United States, attracting criticism by right-wing political figures in Europe.^[39]

As a pejorative

By 2019,^[40] opponents of progressive social movements were often using the term mockingly or sarcastically,^[4][41] implying that «wokeness» was an insincere form of performative activism.^[4][42]
British journalist Steven Poole comments that the term is used to mock «overrighteous liberalism».^[40]
In this pejorative sense, woke means «following an intolerant and moralising ideology».^[19]

United States

Among American conservatives, woke has come to be used primarily as an insult.^[4][29][42]
Members of the Republican Party have been increasingly using the term to criticize members of the Democratic Party, while more centrist Democrats use it against more left-leaning members of their own party; such critics accuse those on their left of using cancel culture to damage the employment prospects of those who are not considered sufficiently woke. Perry Bacon Jr. suggests that this «anti-woke posture» is connected to a long-standing promotion of backlash politics by the Republican Party, wherein it promotes white and conservative fear in response to activism by African Americans as well as changing cultural norms.^[29][43]
Such critics often believe that movements such as Black Lives Matter exaggerate the extent of social problems.^[41]

Among the uses by Republicans is the Stop WOKE Act, a law that limits discussion of racism in Florida schools. A program of eliminating books by LGBT and Black authors from schools was conduced by the Florida government and by vigilantes calling themselves «woke busters.»^[44]

Linguist and social critic John McWhorter argues that the history of woke is similar to that of politically correct, another term once used self-descriptively by the left which was appropriated by the right as an insult, in a process similar to the euphemism treadmill.^[45]
Romano compares woke to canceled as a term for «‘political correctness’ gone awry» among the American right wing.^[4]
Attacking the idea of wokeness, along with other ideas such as cancel culture and critical race theory,^[46] became a large part of Republican Party electoral strategy. Former President Donald Trump stated in 2021 that the Biden administration was «destroying» the country «with woke», and Republican Missouri senator Josh Hawley used the term to promote his upcoming book by saying the «woke mob» was trying to suppress it.^[42]

Asia

In Japan, the term has been used to describe Western progressive politics. It has most commonly been translated into Japanese as «お目覚め文化» (lit. ‘awakening culture’),^[47] but also as «ウォーク» (which is a Katakana form of the word «woke»).

Canada

The term is widely used in Canada as in the United States to describe progressive politics.^{[citation needed]} During a debate in 2023 on the Law Society of Alberta’s 2020 adoption of a rule which made certain Continuing Professional Development (CPD) training courses on Indigenous Canadian history obligatory, a lawyer from the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms wrote an op-ed arguing that the course was a form of «wokeness».^[48][49]

Europe

In a survey by YouGov, 73% of Britons said they used the term in a disapproving way and 11% in an approving way.^[50] In the United Kingdom, the term has also been used as a pejorative by conservative figures.^[39]

The phenomenon le wokisme has also seen use in French politics, particularly since the 2022 French presidential election. Much of the opposition to le wokisme sees it as an American import, incompatible with French values.^[51] Education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer established an «anti-woke think tank» in opposition to what is perceived as an export from the English-speaking world.^[52][53][39]

In Hungary, Hungarian politician Balázs Orbán stated that «we [Hungary] will not give up fighting against woke ideology».^[54]

In Sweden, singer Zara Larsson’s commitment to expressions of «gender power», amongst other things, has been described as «very woke».^[55]

In Switzerland, politicians from and supporters of the Swiss People’s Party criticized Swiss bank UBS for «woke culture».^[56]

Oceania

During the 2022 Australian federal election campaign, both Scott Morrison, then-Prime Minister and leader of the centre-right Liberal-National Coalition, and Anthony Albanese, the current Prime Minister and leader of the centre-left Labor Party, insisted they were not «woke».^[57] Peter Dutton, current Opposition Leader and leader of the Coalition, has also used the term several times before.^[58][59] Members of minor right-wing parties, especially Pauline Hanson’s One Nation and the United Australia Party, also frequently use the term.

In New Zealand, former Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the New Zealand First Party Winston Peters referred to the government led by Jacinda Ardern and the Labour Party as a «woke guilt industry».^[60] Then-Opposition Leader Judith Collins also referred to Ardern as «woke».^[61]

Reception

Scholars Michael B. McCormack and Althea Legal-Miller argue that the phrase stay woke echoes Martin Luther King Jr.’s exhortation «to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change».^{[62][page needed]}

Linguist Ben Zimmer writes that with mainstream currency, the term’s «original grounding in African-American political consciousness has been obscured».^[14] The Economist states that as the term came to be used more to describe white people active on social media, black activists «criticised the performatively woke for being more concerned with internet point-scoring than systemic change».^[19] Journalist Amanda Hess says social media accelerated the word’s cultural appropriation,^[26] writing, «The conundrum is built in. When white people aspire to get points for consciousness, they walk right into the cross hairs between allyship and appropriation.»^[9][26] Hess describes woke as «the inverse of ‘politically correct’ […] It means wanting to be considered correct, and wanting everyone to know just how correct you are».^[26]

Writer and activist Chloé Valdary has stated that the concept of being woke is a «double-edged sword» that can «alert people to systemic injustice» while also being «an aggressive, performative take on progressive politics that only makes things worse».^[4] Social-justice scholars Tehama Lopez Bunyasi and Candis Watts Smith, in their 2019 book Stay Woke: A People’s Guide to Making All Black Lives Matter, argue against what they term as «Woker-than-Thou-itis: Striving to be educated around issues of social justice is laudable and moral, but striving to be recognized by others as a woke individual is self-serving and misguided.»^[63][64][65] Essayist Maya Binyam, writing in The Awl, ironized about a seeming contest among players who «name racism when it appears» or who disparage «folk who are lagging behind».^{[26][further explanation needed]}

In March 2021, Les Echos listed woke among eight words adopted by Generation Z that indicate «un tournant sociétal » [«a societal turning point»] in France.^[66]

The impact of «woke» sentiment on society has been criticised from various perspectives. In 2018, the British political commentator Andrew Sullivan described the «Great Awokening», describing it as a «cult of social justice on the left, a religion whose followers show the same zeal as any born-again Evangelical [Christian]» and who «punish heresy by banishing sinners from society or coercing them to public demonstrations of shame».^[5] In 2021, the British filmmaker and DJ Don Letts suggested that «in a world so woke you can’t make a joke», it was difficult for young artists to make protest music without being accused of cultural appropriation.^[67]

Woke-washing and woke capitalism

By the mid-2010s, language associated with wokeness had entered the mainstream media and was being used for marketing.^[37] Abas Mirzaei, a senior lecturer in branding at Macquarie University says that the term «has been cynically applied to everything from soft drink to razors».^[5] In 2018, African-American journalist Sam Sanders argued that the authentic meaning of woke was being lost to overuse by white liberals and co-option by businesses trying to appear progressive (woke-washing), which would ultimately create a backlash.^[38]

The term woke capitalism was coined by writer Ross Douthat for brands that used politically progressive messaging as a substitute for genuine reform.^[68] According to The Economist, examples of «woke capitalism» include advertising campaigns designed to appeal to millennials, who often hold more socially liberal views than earlier generations.^[69] These campaigns were often perceived by customers as insincere and inauthentic and provoked a backlash summarized by the phrase «get woke, go broke».^[5]

Cultural scientists Akane Kanai and Rosalind Gill describe «woke capitalism» as the «dramatically intensifying» trend to include historically marginalized groups (currently primarily in terms of race, gender and religion) as mascots in advertisement with a message of empowerment to signal progressive values. On the one hand, Kanai and Gill argue that this creates an individualized and depoliticized idea of social justice, reducing it to an increase in self-confidence; on the other hand, the omnipresent visibility in advertising can also amplify a backlash against the equality of precisely these minorities. These would become mascots not only of the companies using them, but of the unchallenged neoliberal economic system with its socially unjust order itself. For the economically weak, the equality of these minorities would thus become indispensable to the maintenance of this economic system; the minorities would be seen responsible for the losses of this system.^[70]

See also

• Culture war
• Political hip hop – Music genre
• Social justice warrior – Pejorative term for a progressive person

References

Further reading

External links

• The dictionary definition of woke at Wiktionary

Last Updated:
4 Apr 2023
— Updated example sentences

He woke up at nine this morning. 

Он сегодня проснулся в девять утра.

She woke to find a man by her bed. 

Она проснулась и обнаружила мужчину в ее кровати.

It was early morning when I woke. 

Когда я проснулся, было раннее утро.

He woke to danger. 

Он осознал опасность.

He woke up twice during the night. 

Он дважды просыпался в течение ночи.

He woke with a start. 

Он вздрогнул и проснулся.

She woke up with a hangover. 

Она проснулась с похмелья.

ещё 23 примера свернуть

When she woke, the sun was streaming through the windows.  

• Journalists woke him with the news and all hell broke loose.  

Maggie woke up with a raging thirst (=an extremely strong thirst).  

Для того чтобы добавить вариант перевода, кликните по иконке ☰, напротив примера.

What Does the Word Woke Mean?

The word woke has multiple definitions. First, it can refer to the past tense of the word awake. 

In a metaphorical sense, the word woke means alert, especially to racial and political discrimination. If someone is woke, they have an active awareness of injustice and prejudice against civil rights and human rights, especially systemic or widespread injustices. This word can also be used more generally to mean awareness of certain facts or a situation. 

What Are Translations of the Word Woke?

For the first definition of woke, many languages have their own words that mean the past tense of awake. Here’s a long list of these translations, which can be useful if you are traveling or studying a new language!

•  Luxembourgish: erwächen‎
•  Danish: vågne‎
•  Faroese: vakna‎
•  Turkish: uyanmak‎
•  Irish: dúisigh‎
•  Breton: dihuniñ‎
•  Spanish: despertarse‎
•  Romanian: trezi‎
•  Italian: risvegliarsi‎
•  French: se réveiller‎
•  Bulgarian: събуждам се‎
•  Portuguese: acordar‎
•  Korean: 일어나다‎
•  German: aufwachen‎, erwachen‎
•  Telugu: నిద్రలేపుట‎ (nidralepuṭa)
•  Hebrew: להתעורר‎
•  Latin: evigilo‎, evigilor‎
•  Esperanto: vekiĝi‎
•  Scottish Gaelic: dùisg‎
•  Indonesian: bangun‎
•  Slovak: zobudiť sa‎
•  Czech: vzbudit se‎, probudit se‎
•  Swedish: vakna‎
•  Japanese: 目覚める‎ (mezameru), 起きる‎ (okiru), 目が覚める‎ (me ga sameru)
•  Macedonian: се буди‎, се разбудува‎, се разбуди‎
•  Swahili: kuamka‎
•  Polish: budzić się‎ (impf), obudzić się‎ (pf), przebudzić się‎ (pf), zbudzić się‎ (pf)
•  Russian: просыпа́ться‎ (impf), просну́ться‎ (pf), пробужда́ться‎ (impf), пробуди́ться‎ (pf)
•  Hungarian: felébred‎, felkel‎
•  Finnish: herätä‎
•  Dutch: ontwaken‎, wakker worden‎

What Is the Origin of the Word Woke?

The slang usage of the word woke as a figurative meaning began to emerge in the 20th century, in the 1940s in Black English. This term was first quoted in a 1943 article in The Atlantic, in which a Black United Mine Workers official used the word. 

In the 60s, this term came to mean well informed in Black English/AAVE (African-American Vernacular English), though it was still associated with the 1960s Civil Rights Movement and political awareness. It was used in a New York Times article in 1962 by William Melvin Kelley.

While the word was used throughout the decades since the 40s such as in the 1972 play about Marcus Garvey Garvey Lives! by Barry Beckham in the line, “I been sleeping all my life. And now that Mr. Garvey done woke me up, I’m gon’ stay woke. And I’m gon help him wake up other black folk.” It was revived in 2008 by Erykah Badu in her song Master Teacher. 

Additionally, after the February 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin by Florida man George Zimmerman, there was a call to action to “stay woke” to police brutality and racial discrimination that Black people and African Americans face. 

This was further spread on social media in 2014 under the Black Lives Matter movement as a response to the murders of a Black man, Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Missouri, and additional cases of police brutality. Today, the original Black slang is used around the world, as well as criticized by people like Piers Morgan and Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Conservatives use the phrase to critique the left.

How Can the Word Woke Be Used in a Sentence?

It is crucial to be aware of how to use words that have multiple meanings in different sentences. The word woke can either mean the past tense of wake, or it can be sued as a slang term to mean aware of different social justice issues. Try using this word in both different contexts so that you understand 

We woke up to the loud sound of sirens outside of our window. The neighbor’s house was on fire, and firefighters were on the scene to put it out and save the family. 

I woke up in my bed in the middle of the night to a rattle at my door. I thought someone was trying to break in, but it was just a bird pecking at my doorknob.

We woke up late on Saturday morning, took a nice stroll down to get brunch in town, and spent the afternoon relaxing, listening to music, and reading. It was a perfect day.

The people were encouraged to stay woke to the social discrimination and white privilege in mainstream media. 

The woke guy shared articles on social media to spread awareness about identity politics and discrimination. However, he was not self-aware enough to realize that in simply sharing articles and taking no action, he was not being hashtag #staywoke at all.

The Black man realized that many of his white friends were not woke at all, and were unaware of important facts of discrimination facing the Black community.

I woke up in a daze, super late for work, and realized that the power had gone out in the middle of the night. My phone had died, and none of my alarms had gone off.

What Are Synonyms of the Word Woke?

Since the word woke has a deeper meaning than just the past tense of wake, sometimes it might be useful to opt to use a synonym instead of using the word woke itself. Depending on the context, someone might be confused as to what you mean when you use the word woke. To clarify, try using one of these synonyms for woke. 

•  aroused
•  awaked
•  wakened
•  tracked
•  furrowed
•  waken
•  awaken
•  get up
•  waved
•  wake up
•  roused
•  awoke
•  awakened
•  awake
•  realize

Overall, the word woke can be used as the past tense of the verb awake but is more commonly used by mainstream activists as a word that refers to being aware and cognizant of things like racism and injustice in a cultural sense.

Sources:

1. Woke Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com 
2. wake: meaning, origin, translation | WordSense Dictionary 
3. Woke synonyms – 184 Words and Phrases for Woke | Power Thesaurus 

What is woke?

Aside from being the past participle of wake, for decades, it meant conscious and aware – but the slang word has come to represent an embrace of progressive activism, as well.

Merriam-Webster added the word to its dictionary in 2017, defining it as, «aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice).» The Oxford dictionary adopted it the same year, defining it as «originally: well-informed, up-to-date. Now chiefly: alert to racial or social discrimination and injustice.»

«Woke is a slang term that is easing into the mainstream from some varieties of a dialect called African American Vernacular English (sometimes called AAVE),» according to Merriam-Webster. «In AAVE, awake is often rendered as woke, as in, ‘I was sleeping, but now I’m woke.’»

The meaning appears to have shifted sometime after Erykah Badu repeatedly used the line «I stay woke» in her 2008 song, «Master Teacher,» which begins, «I am known to stay awake.»

After the song came out, «’Stay woke’ became a watch word in parts of the Black community for those who were self-aware, questioning the dominant paradigm and striving for something better,» according to Merriam-Webster.

REP. CREWNSHAW, SEN. COTTON LAUNCH WHISTLEBLOWER EFFORT AGAINST MILITARY «WOKE IDEOLOGY»

Then in 2013 and 2014, after Florida man George Zimmerman was acquitted in Trayvon Martin’s slaying and the police-involved death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., a wave of Black Lives Matter activism emerged around the country. The phrase went from Twitter hashtag to rallying cry.

«The word woke became entwined with the Black Lives Matter movement; instead of just being a word that signaled awareness of injustice or racial tension, it became a word of action,» according to Merriam-Webster. «Activists were woke and called on others to stay woke.»

In 2018, the rapper Meek Mill took the phrase as the top single on his album «Legends of the Summer.»

The BLM-themed «Stay Woke» was his first song since getting out of prison in April of that year.

DEMOCRATS GETTING INCREASINGLY NERVOUS ABOUT WOKE CULTURE

«How can I pledge allegiance to the flag,» he raps in the final verse. «When they killin’ all our sons, all our dads?»

But the meaning of woke evolved again with the rise of «cancel culture» — as the two terms saw increased use, they became intertwined in the public consciousness. Often, someone gets canceled after they say something insensitive – something not woke.

So in addition to meaning aware and progressive, many people now interpret woke to be a way to describe people who would rather silence their critics than listen to them.

The scope of the word has expanded to fields including education and the corporate world.

It’s taken on a new meeting since when it first appeared in print. That was in a 1962 New York Times article about beatniks and pop culture absorbing jazz music and African American slang from Harlem, Oxford revealed in a June 2017 article about new words heading into the dictionary.

That article, written by the Black New York City novelist William Melvin Kelley was titled, «If you’re woke, you dig it» – meaning if you’re in the know, you understand.

As he noted at the time, a lot of jazz-era idioms became mainstream speech, and words like cool and hip. But the slang was already evolving in meaning back then.

«At one time, the connotations of ‘jive’ were all good,» Kelley wrote. «Now they are bad, or at least questionable.»

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A decade later, in Barry Beckham’s «Garvey Lives!» play about the Black Nationalist leader and publisher Marcus Garvey, a character named Strong vows that he «won’t go to sleep» but instead will «stay woke.»

«I been sleeping all my life,» he says. «And now that Mr. Garvey done woke me up, I’m gon stay woke. And I’m gon help him wake up other Black folk.»

Now it’s not so much a racial term as an ideological one.

English[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /wəʊk/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /woʊk/
• enPR: wōk
• Rhymes: -əʊk

Etymology 1[edit]

Shortened from woken or woke(n) up. The sense of being aware of social injustice dates to at least the 1930s.

Adjective[edit]

woke (not generally comparable, comparative more woke or woker, superlative most woke or wokest)

1. (dialect, African-American Vernacular or slang) Awake: conscious and not asleep.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:awake

2. (originally African-American Vernacular, slang) Alert, aware of what is going on, or well-informed, especially in racial and other social justice issues.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:vigilant

   Antonym: unwoke

   Coordinate terms: (chiefly derogatory) politically correct, (British) right-on

   • 1942, J. Saunders Redding, Negro Digest, Volume 01:

     Waking up is a damn sight harder than going to sleep, but we’ll stay woke up longer.

   • 1962 May 20, William Melvin Kelley, “If You’re Woke You Dig It”, in The New York Times‎^[1], page 45:

     If You’re Woke You Dig It [title]

   • 1972, Barry Beckham, Garvey Lives!:

     I been sleeping all my life. And now that Mr. Garvey done woke me up, I’m gon stay woke. And I’m gon help him wake up other black folk.

   • 2014, Lynn Sweeting, WomanSpeak, A Journal of Writing and Art by Caribbean Women, volume 7:

     […] stay woke[,] people of color, / let us occupy this dissent

4. (by extension, slang, often derogatory) Holding progressive views or attitudes, principally with regards to social justice.

   Synonym: politically correct

   Antonyms: politically incorrect, unwoke

   • 2016 August 14, Ross Douthat, “A Playboy for President”, in The New York Times‎^[2]:

     But the cultural conflict between these two post-revolutionary styles — between frat guys and feminist bluestockings, Gamergaters and the diversity police, alt-right provocateurs and “woke” dudebros, the mouthbreathers who poured hate on the all-female “Ghostbusters” and the tastemakers who pretended it was good — is likely here to stay.

   • 2019 October 29, Emily S. Rueb; Derrick Bryson Taylor, quoting Barack Obama, “Obama on Call-Out Culture: ‘That’s Not Activism’”, in The New York Times‎^[3]:

     Like, if I tweet or hashtag about how you didn’t do something right or used the wrong verb, then I can sit back and feel pretty good about myself, cause, «Man, you see how woke I was, I called you out.» That’s not activism. That’s not bringing about change.

   • 2019 December 6, Jamelle Bouie, “Why the ‘Wokest’ Candidates Are the Weakest”, in The New York Times‎^[4]:

     If this were actually true, you would expect real traction for the wokest candidates in the Democratic presidential race. But it’s been just the opposite. The woke candidates have been the weakest, electorally speaking, and the defining attribute of the Democratic primary has been a preoccupation with the voters that put Trump in the White House.

   • 2021 July 26, Lauren Sarner, “Kevin Smith on ‘Masters of the Universe’ and fan backlash”, in New York Post‎^[5]:

     [Kevin Smith is] also baffled by some of the accusations that he tried to make the franchise “woke” by focusing on Teela.

   • 2022 November 15, Fiona Harvey, quoting Zac Goldsmith, “‘Stupid’ to equate climate concerns with being woke, says Zac Goldsmith”, in The Guardian‎^[6]:

     Rightwing Tory MPs should stop portraying concerns over the climate and nature as “woke”, and understand that voters are deeply concerned about the crisis, the Conservative minister Zac Goldsmith has warned.

Usage notes[edit]

• Like politically correct and social justice warrior, woke started off as a positive word used by people to describe themselves and their behavior and gained negative connotations over time. Some derogatory uses of woke refer to people who would self-identify as woke.

Derived terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

• → Dutch: woke
• → German: woke

Translations[edit]

Noun[edit]

woke (plural wokes)

1. (slang, often derogatory) A person who is woke (holding left-wing views or attitudes).

   • 2022 December 21, Judson Berger, “You Can’t Say That at Stanford”, in National Review‎^[7]:

     Not to beat a dead horse, but it would appear that the wokes are in an abusive relationship with the speech policemen, given that some of their favored terms are being abruptly disallowed (like trigger warning or “preferred” pronouns).

2. (slang, often derogatory) An LGBTQ+ person.

   (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)

Etymology 2[edit]

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb[edit]

woke

1. simple past tense of wake
2. (now colloquial or dialectal) past participle of wake

   • 1860 January–June, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “Miss Prior is Kept at the Door”, in Lovel the Widower, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published 1861, →OCLC, page 56:

     […] have woke out of dreams, mayhap in which the beloved was smiling on you, whispering love-words-oh! how sweet and fondly remembered!

   • 1873, Jules Verne, “Four Thousand Leagues under the Pacific”, in [anonymous], transl., Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas; […], James R. Osgood edition, Boston, Mass.: Geo[rge] M[urray] Smith & Co., →OCLC, part I, page 96:

     It has its tempers and its gentle moods. Yesterday it slept as we did, and now it has woke after a quiet night.

   • 2007 November 10, Joy Dettman, One Sunday‎^[8], Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia, →ISBN, page 184:

     What time did you wake up, and what woke you so flamin’ early on a Sunday morning? Something must have woke you. The alarm clock?

Further reading[edit]

• “woke”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• Sam Sanders (December 30, 2018), “It’s Time To Put ‘Woke’ To Sleep”, in Weekend Edition‎^[9]
• Elijah C. Watson (2017), “The Origin Of Woke: How Erykah Badu And Georgia Anne Muldrow Sparked The “Stay Woke” Era”, in okayplayer‎^[10]
• Woke: The Journey of a Word from BBC Radio

Anagrams[edit]

• Ewok

Dutch[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from English woke.

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

woke (comparative woker, superlative meest woke or wokest)

1. (slang, often derogatory) woke; holding left-wing views or attitudes, (especially) with regards to social justice issues to an excessive degree.

   Coordinate term: politiek correct

   Ondanks al zijn woke gepraat heeft de student nog steeds geen vriendin. ― In spite of all his woke talk, the student still does not have a girlfriend.

Usage notes[edit]

• As in English, the term is sometimes used positively by people who self-identify with the label.

German[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from English woke.

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /wɔʊ̯k/, /β̞ɔʊ̯k/

Adjective[edit]

woke (strong nominative masculine singular woker, not comparable)

1. (neologism, informal) woke (well-informed, especially in social justice issues) [from mid-2010s]

   • 2021 December 11, Barbara Junge, “Scholz eröffnet nächsten Wahlkampf: Die Kalküle des Kanzlers”, in Die Tageszeitung: taz‎^[11], →ISSN:

     Von der Formulierung, „Sozialdemokratinnen und Sozialdemokraten sind nicht bei denen, die sich für was Besseres halten“, ist der Weg nicht weit zu einer Erzählung von der elitären neuen Mittelklasse, die sich auf Kosten der arbeitenden Bevölkerung bereichert und den Mainstream diktiert, einen woken, natürlich.

     From that formulation that “social democrats are not with those who think oneself something better” the way is not far to a story of a new elitarian middle class that enriches itself at the costs of the working population and dictates the mainstream, a woke one of course.

   • 2022 February 23, Ian Miles Cheong, “Die Berufung einer Dragqueen ins Energieministerium ist ein weiterer Akt im Niedergang der USA”, in RT Deutsch‎^[12]:

     Die Ernennung von Brinton ist ein Beispiel für die woken Initiativen der Biden-Regierung in Richtung «Vielfalt, Gerechtigkeit und Inklusion», zu denen auch die Ernennung von Dr. Rachel Levine gehörte, einer Transgender-Gesundheitsbeamtin im Ministerium für Gesundheit und Soziale Dienste. Es sollte nicht überraschen, dass die Biden-Administration Menschen, die woke Hysterie und eine lockere Moral pflegen, erlaubt, in hochrangige Regierungspositionen aufzusteigen, da sogar Vizepräsidentin Kamala Harris sich den Ritualen rund um die Pronomen angeschlossen hat.

     Brinton’s hire is an example of the Biden administration’s woke initiatives towards “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI),” which also included the appointment of Dr. Rachel Levine, a transgender health official to the Department of Health and Human Services. Levine was sworn in as the country’s first four-star admiral.
     It shouldn’t be surprising that the Biden administration allows people suffering from woke hysteria and loose morals to rise to high-ranking government positions, as even Vice President Kamala Harris has joined in with her embrace of pronoun rituals.

Declension[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• “woke” in Duden online
• “woke” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “woke”, in Online-Wortschatz-Informationssystem Deutsch (in German), Mannheim: Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, 2008–

Middle English[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Noun[edit]

woke

1. Alternative form of weke (“week”)

Etymology 2[edit]

Inherited from Old English wāc, from Proto-West Germanic *waikw, from Proto-Germanic *waikwaz. Doublet of weyk.

Alternative forms[edit]

• wac, woc, wake, wok, wooc, woake

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /wɔːk/
• (Northern ME, Early ME) IPA^(key): /wɑːk/

Adjective[edit]

woke (plural and weak singular woke, comparative wakker, superlative wakkest)

1. Physically weak or feeble; lacking strength or energy:
   1. Weak or feeble due to illness, affliction or aging.
   2. Lacking competency in combat or on the battlefield.
   3. Helpless; lacking power, authority, or control.
   4. (rare) Fruitless, barren (agriculturally unusable).
2. Weak-minded; lacking mental force, power or endurance:
   1. Religiously weak; vulnerable to sin or moral turpitude.
   2. (rare) Fearful, afraid; lacking bravery or courage.
   3. (rare) Unintelligent; lacking intelligence or mental willpower.
   4. (rare) Indecisive (unable to commit or take action).
   5. (rare) Morally suspect or corrupt; selfish.
3. Unimportant, valueless (of little value or import).
4. (rare) Bendable; able to be plied or flexed.

Derived terms[edit]

• woclic
• wocnesse
• woken

Descendants[edit]

• Scots: wak, wake, waik (conflated with weyk)

References[edit]

• “wōk, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-11-28.

The term ‘woke’ is at the centre of many of the fiercest political and cultural debates at the moment. Some people say being woke is a sign of awareness to social issues, others whip out the term as an insult.

Boris Johnson was asked if Joe Biden is “woke” following the inauguration of the new US president, with the Prime Minister acknowledging “there is nothing wrong with being woke” in his non-committal answer.

But what does the term really mean, and why do many people get fired up about its use?

Woke was officially added into the Oxford English Dictionary as an adjective in June 2017.

The dictionary defines it as “originally: well-informed, up-to-date. Now chiefly: alert to racial or social discrimination and injustice”.

The Urban Dictionary, which published its original definition two years prior to the official dictionary, defines it as “being woke means being aware… knowing what’s going on in the community (related to racism and social injustice)”.

In other words, it means to be awake to sensitive social issues, such as racism.

What are the origins of woke?

Once upon a time, it simply meant the past participle of ‘wake’. While that has rapidly changed in recent years, the modern definition of the word isn’t that new in the US.

In 1962 the New York Times published an article of “phrases and words you might hear today in Harlem”, a neighbourhood in the northern section of the New York City where many African-Americans live.

The African-American novelist William Melvin Kelley wrote the earliest known use of the word under its new definition in an article titled, “If you’re woke, you dig it”.

Ten years later in 1972, a character in the Barry Beckham play Garvey Lives! says he’ll “stay woke” via the work of pan-Africanist, Marcus Garvey, with the line: “I been sleeping all my life. And now that Mr Garvey done woke me up, I’m gon stay woke. And I’m gon’ help him wake up other black folk”.

When did Black Lives Matter use it?

The term’s break into mainstream language came from the Black Lives Matter movement, which used the hashtag #staywoke in the wake of racial injustices spreading across the US.

In 2012, when unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin was shot dead in Florida by neighbourhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, the term was used heavily to raise awareness of the movement.

This has led to criticism by some that those who mock ‘woke’ are being insensitive to its modern usage and the plight of racism. Others argue that its specific link is not widely known.

Why do some people dislike the term?

It has become a common term of derision among some who oppose the movements it is associated with, or believe the issues are exaggerated. It is sometimes used to mock or infantilise supporters of those movements.

In January last year, the actor Lawrence Fox re-ignited an argument over the use of the term, after he branded an audience member who labelled him a “white privileged male” for saying he was “bored” of racism accusations.

He subsequently accused subscribers to woke views of being “racist”, telling Julie Hartley-Brewer’s radio show: “The wokist are fundamentally racist. Identity politics is extremely racist.”