Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun informal A prejudiced attitude about human
height that often results in discrimination; based on the belief that short statured or unusually tall people are inferior and undesirable.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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I happen to be small and I've been the subject to many years of 'heightism' - a word I invented - so I know how people feel when they are subject to this sort of abuse.
Evening Standard - Home Ken Dyer 2011
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There's something to be said about "heightism" in the Democratic party: Both Kucinich and McCain stand 5'7 "(according to several sources) but no one on the Republican side seems to ever have derided the latter's short stature.
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Gielgud had his idiosyncrasies, for sure, says correspondent Jonathan Croall, but competitive heightism was not one of them.
Hugh Muir's diary 2011
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Most of us copped unapologetically to rampant heightism.
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I claim sexism, heightism and just plain foolish inconsistency.
Archive 2008-08-01 2008
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I claim sexism, heightism and just plain foolish inconsistency.
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As the hormonal controversy and questions continue, so, too, does 'heightism.'
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But heightism also afflicts people without inborn genetic conditions -- those who are "just short."
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Anti-heightism education could easily be incorporated into these efforts.
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Of course, we would be hard-pressed to find someone in an exit poll who voted against McCain because he was 'too short' -- but the study suggests that Americans harbor a subtle form of prejudice called 'heightism,' in which short-statured people are seen as inherently inferior to their taller counterparts - particularly in times of economic and political trouble.
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