Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Used as a disparaging term for a white person or white people of low socioeconomic status.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun US, idiomatic, pejorative, ethnic slur
Poorly educated white people of lowsocial status .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun (slang) an offensive term for White people who are impoverished
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
A shortening, first attested in 1850, of poor white trash, which black slaves in the Southern United States were said to call white individuals who worked in servile positions (for example as butlers).
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Examples
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lea commented on the word white trash
Infectious word like swine flu. My friend is a cultural antropologist/librarian, Native Americans being her main subject and she loves this word. I have grown to love it, too, I noticed. White trash has left the building on Capitol Hill... Woohoo! Life is good.
May 2, 2009