Word of the Day: May 27, 2009 - bigot

bigot (big-uht) - noun

A bigot is "a narrow-minded person; one who is strongly partial to one's own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ."

First used in the written form around 1590–1600. According to the 12th-century Anglo-Norman chronicler Wace, bigot was a contemptuous term applied by the French to the Normans. Bigots may have more in common with God than one might think. Legend has it that Rollo, the first duke of Normandy, refused to kiss the foot of the French king Charles III, uttering the phrase bi got, his borrowing of the assumed Old English equivalent of the expression by God. Later, the word, or very possibly a homonym, was used abusively in French for the Beguines, members of a Roman Catholic lay sisterhood. From the 15th century on Old French bigot meant "an excessively devoted or hypocritical person." Bigot was first recorded in English in 1598 with the sense "a superstitious hypocrite."

Comments

[Tiger]

Great choice in picture Jinxi! reminds me of religulous when the girl holding some anti gay sign says " I don't hate gays, god does". B I G O T.