WASP
24
8.2
- noun
- /wɑsp/
- US
:
protestante anglosajón blanco
- The SAT was developed as a reaction against the WASP elite and its corrupt admissions practices.
- white WASPs
- WASP culture
It said what's post coital depression for a WASP, white Anglo-Saxon Protestant.
- It said what's post coital depression for a WASP, white Anglo-Saxon Protestant.
- He was a patronizing upper class WASP gentleman.
- But let me tell you that it was a WASP male establishment par excellence in those days.
- No, I think I got in my stuff about WASP that I wanted to talk about and.
Examples
-
The reason was a fear of immodesty, born of the injunction that WASPs shouldn't "make a show" of themselves.
Academic text (2009) -
Annie's family is a completely normal-looking WASP family; only everyone is a little eccentric.
Fiction book (1993) -
I used to think of them as the WASP establishment that ran this place when I first got here.
Fiction book (2001) -
Witness the continued testimony of my WASP friend, who went to my high school:
Blog text (32) -
Well, you know, never underestimate the power of WASP blue blood family connections.
-
But let me tell you that it was a WASP male establishment par excellence in those days.
-
I can already picture your next summer on Nantucket with some WASP heiress.
-
From the time of its founding in 1870 until 1920, all its presidents were WASPs.
Academic text (2004) -
In Homecoming, for example, upper-class WASP antisemitism divides a family in an echo of its 1950s beginnings.
Academic text (1998) -
Many wealthy families in America are often regarded as WASPs because of their historical connections to Anglo-Saxon Protestantism.
Synonyms
1
7.2
A white person with British family background who follows Protestant Christianity and is often from a socially important group
Compounds
- Specialized
A very small wasp whose young grow inside other insects' eggs or young, helping to control pests
- UK
A small flying insect with black and yellow stripes that makes nests near houses and can sting
- Specialized
A small wasp that makes round growths called galls on oak trees and other plants
A wasp that lives alone, digs a nest in soil and brings stung insects for its young to eat
Surface Forms
Morphology
WASP = white + Anglo + Saxon + Protestant (semi-transparent) = W + A + S + P
The acronym is transparently composed from the initial letters of the constituent words, but the specific socio-cultural meaning and connotations (e.g., association with American social elite) are not directly derivable by simply knowing the parts.
Etymology
WASP is a short name made from the first letters of White, Anglo-Saxon, and Protestant, first used in the United States for people of old English Protestant background who were often part of the social elite. A helpful way to remember it is to think of the insect wasp—small and sometimes 'stinging'—but the real origin is the letters, so today WASP means a member of that social group.