Dictionary

herrenvolk en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• hĕrʹən-fŏlk (UK)
• /ˈhɛɹənfoʊk/ (US)
• hĕrʹən-fōk (UK)
• /ˈhɛɹənfɒlk/ (UK)
• hĕrʹən-fôlk (US)
• hĕrʹən-fōk (US)
• /ˈhɛɹənfɔlk/ (US)
• /ˈhɛɹənfəʊk/ (UK)

Etymology

From German Herrenvolk, from Herr (“lord, master, gentleman”) + -en- + Volk (“folk, people”).

Meanings

1. A master race, especially with reference to Nazi ideology.
   • In their position halfway between the blacks and the white Herrenvolk, they are bound to be unstable, they are petty bourgeois to the core, all of them. 1995 [1954], Doris Lessing, A Proper Marriage, HarperPerennial, page 59:
   • The political system that was emerging has been aptly described as a 'Herrenvolk democracy', a formally democratic political system in which voting and office holding is limited to members of a dominant ethno-racial group. 2003, George M. Fredrickson, The Historical Construction of Race and Citizenship in the United States^(https://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BCCF9/(httpAuxPages)/8A0AE7EACD11F278C1256DD6004860EA/$file/Fredrick.pdf), page 14:

Forms

Deriveds

herrenvolkism