parrotry

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From parrot +‎ -ry.

Noun[edit]

parrotry (usually uncountable, plural parrotries)

  1. Thoughtless imitation or repetition of someone else's words or sayings; mindless repetition. [from 18th c.]
    • 1796, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Watchman, number 3:
      This sentiment is so lugged into every debate, that it has degenerated into mere parrotry.
    • 1986, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Decolonising the Mind, Heinemann, published 2005, page 2:
      The economic and political dependence of this African neo-colonial bourgeoisie is reflected in its culture of apemanship and parrotry conforced on a restive population through police boots, barbed wire, a gowned clergy and judiciary […].