white trash en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- (Australia) audio
Etymology
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).
Meanings
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(US, derogatory, ethnic, idiomatic, offensive, slur, uncountable) A poorly educated white person or, collectively, white people of low social status and often regarded as lazy, irresponsible, unintelligent, etc.
Among these odd folk, who correspond exactly to the decadent element of “white trash” in the South, law and morals are non-existent; and their general mental status is probably below that of any other section of the native American people.
1919, H. P. Lovecraft, Beyond the Wall of Sleep:“So, he is the father of Emmie Slattery’s baby,” thought Scarlett. “Oh, well. What else can you expect from a Yankee man and a white-trash girl?”
1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, published June 1944, →OCLC, part I, page 71:These lowlife characters are white trash.
When Linda was two and living in a San Pedro dive with her white-trash parents, he was twelve and gaining clandestine access to wealthy homes in Bronxville and Scarsdale, New York, exorcising his nocturnal heart by delivering himself to the quiet muse of other people's dwellings, sometimes stealing, sometimes not. . . .
1987 [1984], James Ellroy, Because the Night, New York: Avon, →ISBN, page 31:This white trash can't pay for his own beer.
Just some Portland white trash / You confronted your sorrow / Like there was no tomorrow / While the rest of the world only laughed
2017, “Tonya Harding”, performed by Sufjan Stevens:
Deriveds
white-trashy · Whitetrashistan · white trashery
Descendants
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Synonyms
Translations (19)
pl biała biedota (white person or people of low social status (pejorative)) · de weißer Abschaum (white person or people of low social status (pejorative)) · ru бе́лая шваль (white person or people of low social status (pejorative)) · kk ақ қоқыс (white person or people of low social status (pejorative)) · fi valkoinen roskaväki (white person or people of low social status (pejorative)) · fi valkoroska (white person or people of low social status (pejorative)) · ru бе́лое отро́дье (white person or people of low social status (pejorative)) · ru бе́лое отре́бье (white person or people of low social status (pejorative)) · cmn 白色垃圾 (white person or people of low social status (pejorative)) · fr déchet blanc (white person or people of low social status (pejorative)) · th ฝรั่งขี้นก (white person or people of low social status (pejorative)) · de weißes Gesindel mit viel Geld (white person or people of low social status (pejorative)) · cmn 洋垃圾 (white person or people of low social status (pejorative)) · de White Trash (white person or people of low social status (pejorative)) · ja プアホワイト (white person or people of low social status (pejorative)) · sv WT (white person or people of low social status (pejorative)) · ru бе́лый му́сор (white person or people of low social status (pejorative)) · fr white trash (white person or people of low social status (pejorative)) · ja ホワイトトラッシュ (white person or people of low social status (pejorative))