white bread

See also: whitebread and white-bread

English

Alternative forms

• (adj) white-bread, whitebread
• (ethnic slur, noun) whitebread

Noun

white bread (usually uncountable, plural white breads)

1. Bread made from white flour.

   Coordinate terms: brown bread, pain de mie, wholemeal bread

   • 1933, Edith Almedingen, “White Bread for Creeds”, in The Catholic World, volume 136:

     Yes—just become a Communist, and things get all right. Deny your Christ and they will give you white bread in plenty and clothes to wear—" He would hold his breath, would wonder and question: "What is white bread? And who is Christ?"

   • 1998, Csaba Teglas, chapter VII, in Budapest Exit, page 73:

     At one time, when the commandant felt especially indebted, he sent the other officers out of his office and opened the safe. There it was, securely hidden, an entire loaf of white bread. He cut a large slice, wrapped it in newspaper and, beaming, handed this precious gift to Ildikó. "Just for you. I, as the commandant, am entitled to some white bread," he said proudly. Ildikó was touched, not by the value of the gift but by the realization of the Russians' grave poverty.

2. (US, ethnic slur, uncommon) A white person, a person of European descent, a person who 'acts white'.

   Synonyms: whitey, Caucasian; see also Thesaurus:white person

   • 2006, Michael Soltys, The Grass Is Green, section 296:

     Teyshawn wanted to yell whitebreads did it—fucking whitebreads.

   • 2011, Kathryn Grant, The Good Counselor, act I, scene ii:

     evelyn. Fuck you, white bread.
     vincent. Oh, I'm white?
     evelyn. You don't act black.
     vincent. (smiling) And yet, people still treat me like I'm black.

Usage notes

The relative sophistication of the process of producing white flour initially created positive associations with progress and wealth; more recently, white bread's longer shelf-life, relative lack of flavor, and associations with harmful bleaching chemicals have created more neutral or even negative associations.

The ethnic term is more often encountered as an adjective.

Translations

bread made from white flour

• Catalan: pa blanc m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 白麵包／白面包 (baak⁶ min⁶ baau¹)

  Mandarin: 白麵包／白面包 (zh) (báimiànbāo)

• Dutch: wittebrood (nl) n
• Estonian: sai (et)
• Finnish: vaalea leipä, valkoinen leipä
• French: pain blanc (fr) m, pain de mie (fr) m
• German: Weißbrot (de) n, Weissbrot (de) n (Switzerland, Liechtenstein)
• Hungarian: fehér kenyér (hu)
• Hunsrik: Weisbrod n
• Icelandic: hveitibrauð (is) n, franskbrauð (is) n
• Indonesian: roti putih (id)
• Irish: arán bán m, arán geal m
• Japanese: 白パン (しろパン, shiropan)
• Latvian: baltmaize (lv) f
• Low German:

  German Low German: Stuten m, Stuut m

• Maltese: ħobż abjad pl
• Plautdietsch: Wittbroot n
• Polish: białe pieczywo n
• Portuguese: pão branco m
• Romanian: pâine albă f
• Russian: бе́лый хлеб (ru) (bélyj xleb)
• Tagalog: puting tinapay
• Vietnamese: bánh mì trắng
• Welsh: bara can m, bara gwyn m
• Yiddish: ווײַסברויט n (vaysbroyt), בולקע f (bulke)

Adjective

white bread (comparative more white bread, superlative most white bread)

1. (chiefly US, colloquial, derogatory) Bland, boring; flavorless.

   Synonyms: conventional, bourgeois, wonderbread; see also Thesaurus:boring, Thesaurus:insipid

   • 1983, Billy Joel (lyrics and music), “Uptown Girl”:

     She's been living in her white bread world / As long as anyone with hot blood can / And now she's looking for a downtown man

   • 1997 August 20, Trey Parker, Matt Stone, “Weight Gain 4000”, in South Park, season 1, episode 2, spoken by Mayor McDaniels:

     This is our chance to make a name for ourselves; to show that we're not just some piss-ant white-bread mountain town.

   • 2022 May 11, Alexandra Alter, quoting Kim Stanley Robinson, “A Sci-Fi Writer Returns to Earth: ‘The Real Story Is the One Facing Us’”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     He’s always thought of himself as boring, “a white-bread suburban househusband.”

2. (US ethnic slur) Of or relating to white people.

   Synonyms: Caucasian, wonderbread

   • 1993 November 15, Eric Pooley, “Can Giuliani Pull It Together?”, in New York, volume 26, number 45, page 53:

     [Rudy] Giuliani is hedging a bit, but he's not the white-bread cop so many blacks expect him to be.

Anagrams

• whitebeard