The word “woke” soon in the dictionary: where did the term come from and what does it mean today

Used all over the place for a few months in Quebec, the word woke and the wokism will be found in the 2023 editions of the Petit Robert and Larousse dictionaries. Even Prime Minister François Legault offered us his own definition of it last year. But what is it, exactly, to be woke? Where does this term come from and why is it used here? We explain to you.

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Afro-American origins

Be woke, according to Le Petit Robert, he is a person “who is aware of and offended by the injustices and discrimination suffered by minorities and mobilizes to fight them, sometimes in an intransigent way (especially pejorative, by denigration)”. It is also said of wokismin the Larousse, that it is about an “ideology of inspiration woke, centered on the questions of equality, justice and defense of the minorities, sometimes perceived as prejudicial to republican universalism”.

According to the original 2017 definition of the term – this is when the usage of this neologism became more mainstream and entered the reputable Oxford English Dictionary –, woke means a “person alert to social injustices, particularly racism”.

“The term woke referred to the fact of not remaining passive or not turning a blind eye to the racial segregation experienced by black American communities, underlines the professor of political sociology at UQAM Guillaume Dufour. It was a term intimately linked to the hope that by remaining aware, active and awake, these dynamics of segregation could be named, exposed and reversed.

François Legault had for his part proposed to us, in 2021, his own definition of the term. According to the Prime Minister, a person woke is “someone who opposes the defense of the Quebec nation” – and very specifically targets Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois in the matter of provincial jurisdictions. A bold proposal when you know that the word has its origins in the United States.

Exactly, let’s talk about the American origins of the word.

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A term used for a long time

In 1938, singer Huddie Ledbetter, known as Lead Belly, used it to warn African Americans to “stay awake, keep your eyes peeled” (“best stay woke, keep their eyes open”) in Scottsboro, deemed dangerous for black citizens. The city of Alabama had been the scene, in 1931, of the unfair trial of nine young African-Americans between the ages of 12 and 20 convicted and sentenced to death for the rape of young white women.

The word was then first defined in the media in 1962 by William Melvin Kelley, a black-skinned novelist who wrote about African-American slang. He then defined it as an expression designating a “knowledgeable, aware and up-to-date” African American.

The black community in the United States continued to use it in reference to racism for decades.

Black Lives matter and social networks

It wasn’t until 2014 that the majority of people heard of the term woke for the first time, with the movement Black Lives Matter (BLM). This word was used during the demonstrations which followed the death of Michael Brown, a black teenager killed by a policeman while he was unarmed. African Americans were advised to stay alert, or wokein the face of police brutality.

The expression then changed to hashtag (#stay woke) and its use has spread like wildfire. It is used today for all kinds of causes: defense of the rights of First Nations, refugees or the LGBTQ+ community.

And why in the National Assembly?

The word, however, seems to have been lost in the cultural and ideological wars between the political left and right. Result: it is now mainly used in a pejorative way, underlines Guillaume Dufour. Exactly as François Legault did last fall at the Salon bleu.

It is now more often associated with people “moralistic, dogmatic, who give lessons, who advocate the culture of banishment and political correctness”, according to a definition made by Nadine Vincent, professor in the Department of communication of the Sherbrooke University.

Basically, “this word is now used in a pejorative way to insult people who have more progressive values, who are more akin to the spectrum of the political left,” summarizes master’s student in linguistics Alexandra Dupuy.

“The term has been remobilized by political actors to denounce what they perceive as an overmoralization of politics. There are conservatives to use the term as such, but also people who are more left on a range of social issues, who believe that there are risks in always presenting themselves as virtuous in politics and always acting in the name of virtue. », Supports for his part Guillaume Dufour.

And besides, what is special about this term, according to Alexandra Dupuy, is that the people to whom this label is assigned do not identify themselves as being wokedemonstrating the “completely pejorative” use of the word.

Even Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, who has been described as woke by the Prime Minister, did not want to give his definition of the wokism Thursday. “I don’t really know what that means,” he said.

Usage is king

This reappropriation of the term woke is nothing surprising. Indeed, it is quite normal for a word to change its definition depending on usage, note Nadine Vincent and Alexandra Dupuy.

“As soon as it is a word that designates a person, there is a good chance [que sa définition] changes over time. But we are not able to predict which words exactly will change meaning, ”adds Alexandra Dupuy.

We can thus think of the word boomer which, basically, is a completely factual term to designate people born between the years 1946 and 1966. But recent usage has given it the pejorative connotation that we know. Same for the word queeronce an insult, that the LGBTQ+ community has reclaimed to call itself.

“It really all depends on societal desire and how people use words. [C’est ce qui va] define whether the word will change meaning to go from something positive to negative – or the reverse – over time”, specifies Alexandra Dupuy.

“We cannot impose anything on usage. It is the use that decides. We cannot impose rules on the language”, analyzes Nadine Vincent.

– With information from VOX