woke

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /wəʊk/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /woʊk/
• enPR: wōk

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊk

Etymology 1

Shortened from woken or woke(n) up.

Adjective

woke (not generally comparable, comparative more woke or woker, superlative most woke or wokest)

1. (dialect, African-American Vernacular or slang) Awake: conscious and not asleep.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:awake

2. (chiefly African-American Vernacular, slang) Alert, aware of what is going on, or well-informed, especially in racial and other social justice issues.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:vigilant

   Coordinate terms: (chiefly derogatory) politically correct, (British) right-on

   • 1942, J. Saunders Redding, Negro Digest, Volume 01:

     Waking up is a damn sight harder than going to sleep, but we’ll stay woke up longer.

   • 1962 May 20, William Melvin Kelley, “If You’re Woke You Dig It”, in The New York Times‎^[1], page 45:

     If You’re Woke You Dig It [title]

   • 1972, Barry Beckham, Garvey Lives!:

     I been sleeping all my life. And now that Mr. Garvey done woke me up, I’m gon stay woke. And I’m gon help him wake up other black folk.

   • 2008, Erykah Badu (lyrics and music), “Master Teacher”, in New Amerykah Part One (4th World War):

     What if there was no niccas / Only master teachers? / I stay woke (dreams dreams)

   • 2014, Lynn Sweeting, WomanSpeak, A Journal of Writing and Art by Caribbean Women, volume 7:

     […] stay woke[,] people of color, / let us occupy this dissent

4. (slang, often derogatory) Holding left-wing views or attitudes, principally with regards to certain social justice issues or to an excessive degree.
   • 2016 August 14, Ross Douthat, “A Playboy for President”, in The New York Times‎^[2]:

     But the cultural conflict between these two post-revolutionary styles — between frat guys and feminist bluestockings, Gamergaters and the diversity police, alt-right provocateurs and “woke” dudebros, the mouthbreathers who poured hate on the all-female “Ghostbusters” and the tastemakers who pretended it was good — is likely here to stay.

   • 2019 October 29, Barack Obama quoted in the New York Times[3]:

     Like, if I tweet or hashtag about how you didn’t do something right or used the wrong verb, then I can sit back and feel pretty good about myself, cause, "Man, you see how woke I was, I called you out." That’s not activism. That’s not bringing about change.

   • 2019 December 6, Jamelle Bouie, “Why the ‘Wokest’ Candidates Are the Weakest”, in The New York Times‎^[4]:

     If this were actually true, you would expect real traction for the wokest candidates in the Democratic presidential race. But it’s been just the opposite. The woke candidates have been the weakest, electorally speaking, and the defining attribute of the Democratic primary has been a preoccupation with the voters that put Trump in the White House.

Usage notes

• Like politically correct, woke started off as a positive word used by people to describe themselves and their behavior and gained negative connotations over time. Some derogatory uses of woke refer to people who would self-identify as woke.

Derived terms

• get woke, go broke
• woke church
• wokeness
• wokescold
• wokester
• wokewash
• wokism
• wokist

 

Descendants

• → Dutch: woke

Translations

alert of what is happening

• Arabic: يَقِظ‎ (yaqiẓ), نَبِه‎ (nabih)
• Finnish: tiedostava (fi)
• French: au fait (fr)

• Hebrew: נאורה‎ f (neora), נאור‎ (he) m (naor), נאורות‎ f pl (neorot), נאורים‎ m pl (neorim)
• Maori: aroā, arowā
• Serbo-Croatian: budan (sh) m, svjestan (sh) m, osviješten (sh) m, budan (sh) m

politically correct

• Dutch: woke (voke)

• Portuguese: lacrador (pt) m, lacradora (pt) f

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

woke

1. simple past tense and past participle of wake

Further reading

• “woke”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
• Sam Sanders (December 30, 2018) , “It's Time To Put 'Woke' To Sleep”, in Weekend Edition‎^[5]
• Elijah C. Watson (2017) , “The Origin Of Woke: How Erykah Badu And Georgia Anne Muldrow Sparked The “Stay Woke” Era”, in okayplayer‎^[6]

Anagrams

• Ewok

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Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English woke.

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Adjective

woke (comparative woker, superlative meest woke or wokest)

1. (slang, often derogatory) woke; holding left-wing views or attitudes, (especially) with regards to social justice issues or to an excessive degree.

   Coordinate term: politiek correct

   Ondanks al zijn woke gepraat heeft de student nog steeds geen vriendin. ― In spite of all his woke talk, the student still does not have a girlfriend.

Usage notes

• As in English, the term is sometimes used positively by people who self-identify with the label.

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Middle English

Etymology 1

Inherited from Old English wucu, wicu.

Noun

woke

1. Alternative form of weke (“week”)

Etymology 2

Inherited from Old English wāc, from Proto-West Germanic *waikw, from Proto-Germanic *waikwaz. Doublet of weyk.

Alternative forms

• wac, woc, wake, wok, wooc, woake

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wɔːk/
• (Northern ME, Early ME) IPA^(key): /wɑːk/

Adjective

woke (plural and weak singular woke, comparative wakker, superlative wakkest)

1. Physically weak or feeble; lacking strength or energy:
   1. Weak or feeble due to illness, affliction or aging.
   2. Lacking competency in combat or on the battlefield.
   3. Helpless; lacking power, authority, or control.
   4. (rare) Fruitless, barren (agriculturally unusable).
2. Weak-minded; lacking mental force, power or endurance:
   1. Religiously weak; vulnerable to sin or moral turpitude.
   2. (rare) Fearful, afraid; lacking bravery or courage.
   3. (rare) Unintelligent; lacking intelligence or mental willpower.
   4. (rare) Indecisive (unable to commit or take action).
   5. (rare) Morally suspect or corrupt; selfish.
3. Unimportant, valueless (of little value or import).
4. (rare) Bendable; able to be plied or flexed.

Derived terms

• woclic
• wocnesse
• woken

Descendants

• Scots: wak, wake, waik (conflated with weyk)

References

• “wōk, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-11-28.