Colored People's Time

English

Etymology

Based on a treatment of it as a time zone.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

CP Time (uncountable)

1. (US, dated derogatory slang, sometimes reclaimed) A notional system of time (or time zone) which others sometimes derogatorily ascribe to African Americans, and which they sometimes jocularly ascribe to themselves, to account for their supposed tendency to be tardy.
   • 1967 January 27, Martin Luther King, Jr., quoted in Stephen B. Oates, Let the Trumpet Sound (1994), p. 338:

     “Colored People's Time,” King said with a grin. “It always takes us longer to get where we're going.”

Synonyms

• CP Time
• CP time
• CPT
• Colored People Time
• see also Thesaurus:tardy time