bigot
/ˈbɪɡət/ noun
Forms bigots
- noun One who is narrow-mindedly devoted to their own ideas and groups, and intolerant of (people of) differing ideas, races, genders, religions, politics, etc.
- noun (obsolete) One who is overly pious in matters of religion, often hypocritically or else superstitiously so.
Etymology
From French bigot (“a sanctimonious person; a religious hypocrite”), from Middle French bigot, from Old French bigot, of disputed origin. It is most often believed to have derived from the identical Old French derogatory term bigot applied to the overly religious Normans, said to be known for frequently swearing Middle English bi God (“by God”) (compare Old English bī god, Middle High German bī got, Middle Dutch bi gode), which is also thought to be the origin of the surname Bigott, Bygott. (Compare the French use of "godons" and "goddamns" to refer to the English in Joan of Arc's time, and les sommobiches (see son of a bitch) during World War I). From meaning "someone overly religious" it came to mean "someone overly devoted to their own religious opinion", and then to its current sense.
The French Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales supports the Germanic origin theory above. Liberman however opines that this has "too strong a taste of a folk etymological guess invented in retrospect" and prefers Grammont et al.'s theory that it derives from Albigot (“inhabitant of Albi”), named after the commune in southern France where Catharism (also known as Albigensianism) is thought to have originated. However, neither the Oxford English Dictionary nor Online Etymology Dictionary list Grammont and Liberman's theory among their possible origins.
Compare typologically Russian ханжа́ (xanžá) (< Ottoman Turkish حاجی (hacı, “Kaaba pilgrim”)).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A hypocrite; esp., a superstitious hypocrite. [Obs.]
- noun A person who regards his own faith and views in matters of religion as unquestionably right, and any belief or opinion opposed to or differing from them as unreasonable or wicked. In an extended sense, a person who is intolerant of opinions which conflict with his own, as in politics or morals; one obstinately and blindly devoted to his own church, party, belief, or opinion.
- adjective Bigoted. [Obs.]
Etymology [F. bigot a bigot or hypocrite, a name once given to the Normans in France. Of unknown origin; possibly akin to Sp. bigote a whisker; hombre de bigote a man of spirit and vigor; cf. It. s- bigottire to terrify, to appall. Wedgwood and others maintain that bigot is from the same source as Beguine, Beghard.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “bigot”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details