[Ads-l] woke, stay woke (was Jidori - 2009 TM, 2011 use)

Ben Zimmer bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM
Fri May 20 05:44:34 UTC 2016


#StayWoke was also in the running in the Most Notable Hashtag category in
the 2015 ADS Word of the Year voting. It will be included in the next
installment of "Among the New Words" in the Spring issue of American Speech
(the second installment devoted to WOTY nominees). As with the articles
below, we trace the usage back to Erykah Badu's 2008 song "Master Teacher."

On Fri, May 20, 2016 at 12:22 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole <
adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:

> The article immediately below contains an interesting analysis of the
> history of "woke/stay woke" with pointers to song lyrics and twitter
> messages.
>
> Timestamp: 01/08/16 2:57 PM
> Article: How ‘woke’ went from black activist watchword to teen internet
> slang
> Author: Charles Pulliam-Moore
>
> http://fusion.net/story/252567/stay-woke/
>
>
> Here is another article:
>
> Date: January 11, 2016
> Article: What Does "Woke" Mean? There's More To The Slang Term Than You
> Think
> Author: Maddy Foley
>
>
> http://www.bustle.com/articles/134893-what-does-woke-mean-theres-more-to-the-slang-term-than-you-think
>
>
> Urban Dictionary has entries, but they are rather late:
>
> http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=woke
> http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=stay+woke
>
>
> On Thu, May 19, 2016 at 11:33 PM, Theresa Fisher
> <fisher.theresa at gmail.com> wrote:
> > For a news piece, I was wondering if anyone has thoughts on the emergence
> > and use of "woke" as a slang term for aware. Here's an example, from an
> > movie review: "A brief conversation with the Kappas makes Teddy realize
> > just how misogynist the parties he threw in college were. Newly *woke*,
> he
> > decides to advise the sorority."
> >
> > Some version of awake (maybe not "woke") seems like a natural way of
> > expressing awareness (social, cultural, literal). Any insight
> appreciated.
> > Thanks.
>

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