Dictionary

us versus them en · NOUN

Etymology

us + versus + them

Meanings

1. (uncountable) A state of opposition between two groups, mostly based on group membership.
   • Is there “us versus them” polarization or ethnic or religious prejudice that might sanction or prompt violence toward an out-group? 1981, Martha Crenshaw, “The Causes of Terrorism”, in Comparative Politics, (13) 4, (July 1981), pp. 379-99. p. 390:
   • From this social perception follows the corollary us-versus-them argument. Anyone who learns that this marker of identity “offends the ear” joins the select group of those in the know, and will have a criterion by which he can both identify and judge the out-group who “desire to be up with the latest in thing,” and reassert his own membership in the club of those with taste. 1983, M. Stanley Whitley, "Hopefully: A Shibboleth in the English Adverb System", American Speech, (58) 2 (Summer 1983), pp. 126–49. p. 132
   • The inevitable result of disenfranchisement was that the disinterested would become even more disinterested; the schism “us” versus “them” would grow; and special groups—e.g., women members—would feel that they were inadequately represented. 1968, "Annual Representative Meeting, Eastbourne, 1968", British Medical Journal Supplement, (7/6/1968), pp. 1–36. p. 24
   • These bastards stole their power from the victims of the Us-v.-Them Years, wrecking all things virtuous and true. 1992 October 5, R.E.M., “Ignoreland”, in Automatic for the People:

Forms

Relateds

tribalism · the Other · us-and-them · us against them · ingroup and outgroup