social death
1
8.9
- noun
- Specialized
:
muerte social
- If we do not read the current genocide crimes list in the context of Lemkin's original descriptions, we run the risk of equating genocide with a group's physical annihilation and of missing what the philosopher Claudia Card identifies as the unique evil of genocide: social death.
And it's like social death and a really devastating condition to be in.
- And it's like social death and a really devastating condition to be in.
- And for teenagers, social death is a living hell, whereas death is over quickly.
- And I felt like I was dying or I wanted to die for a long time because it is social death.
Examples
-
When Tim was diagnosed with AIDS, patients like him died a social death long before their physical death.
Academic text (2001) -
This marginalization and dehumanization of the Jews meant that their physical destruction was prefaced and facilitated by a lingering social death.
Academic text (2010) -
In other words, they experience a "social death."
Academic text (2007) -
And it's like social death and a really devastating condition to be in.
-
And for teenagers, social death is a living hell, whereas death is over quickly.
-
The workhouse produced not just physical but also social death.
Academic text (2017) -
Card defines social death as the fate of an individual whose identity and anchors of meaning have been destroyed.
Academic text (2006) -
Although thousands have been martyred for their refusal to eat meat, vegetarians today suffer merely a species of social death.
Academic text (2000) -
Like the slave, the convert undergoes a form of social death in which all human relations are eradicated, and all aspects of life thereafter are mediated entirely through the master.
Blog text (19) -
When someone is bullied at school, they often feel a sense of social death as their friends distance themselves.
Synonyms
1
8.4
To exclude someone from a group as punishment or social rejection
1
7.6
Leaving a person out of social activities so they feel alone
Being rejected by most people and treated as an outsider
Antonyms
How Excluded
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines 'social' (relating to community/relationships) with 'death' (end or cessation) in a straightforward metaphorical way, so its meaning as the end or loss of social ties/status is directly inferable from the parts. This kind of 'X death' metaphor is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both words will very likely understand the intended sense.
Etymology
The phrase social death comes from the image of being treated like you are dead in a group — your social life stops because people ignore you and stop inviting you. So, the term means 'being cut off or excluded from friends and community'.