birther

English

Alternative forms

• Birther

Etymology

birth +‎ -er

Noun

birther (plural birthers)

1. One who gives birth
   • 1951, Erico Verissimo, Time and the Wind^[1], volume 2, page 583:

     […] she couldn't be an "easy birther."

   • 1998 January 22, “Paper Disputes Claims of Oldest Brit to Deliver”, page C2:

     Liz Buttle, Britain's oldest birther, lied about not taking fertility drugs and didn't conceive her 2-month-old boy in the usual way as she insisted.

2. (slang, pejorative, US politics) A believer in one or more conspiracy theories, holding that President Barack Obama is not a "natural born" citizen of the United States, and therefore ineligible for the presidency.
   • 2008 December 8, Jay Bookman, “'Shut up about the birth certificate'”:

     I confess I do have some sympathy for the "birthers," though. As an outsider, it's hard to distinguish between the zany arguments that get official approval by the conservative establishment --- things like Bill Ayers, Michelle Obama's infamous "whitey" tape, the claim that Obama is a closet Marxist --- and those arguments that are considered beyond the pale.

   • 2009 August 7, Paul Krugman, “The Town Hall Mob”, New York Times:

     Senator Dick Durbin has suggested that the birthers and the health care protesters are one and the same; we don’t know how many of the protesters are birthers, but it wouldn’t be surprising if it’s a substantial fraction.

   • 2010 September 29, Mark Benjamin, “What Islamophobia really threatens”:

     Earlier this month, columnist and birther Frank Gaffney, Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., the ranking Republican on the Intelligence Committee, and others held a news conference on Capitol Hill to release a report on Muslim religious law entitled "Shariah: The Threat to America."

See also

• birtherism
• Barack Obama citizenship conspiracy theories on Wikipedia.Wikipedia:Barack Obama citizenship conspiracy theories

Anagrams

• rebirth