great white hope
1
8.4
- noun
- /ɡreɪt waɪt hoʊp/
- Slur
:
[término ofensivo para designar a una persona blanca vista como esperanza de éxito]
- You're the great white hope.
Examples
-
I'm the great white hope.
Blog text (18) -
THAT QUARTERBACK'S THE GREAT WHITE HOPE.
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You was the great white hope.
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That kid's the great white hope.
Fiction book (2001) -
Is he the Democrats' great white hope for the future?
Blog text (34) -
Look, simply put, you're the great white hope.
-
Then, at the last minute, they will drag out Paul Ryan, the great white hope, and they will avoid you like a bad neighborhood on a dark night.
Blog text (17) -
Representing the State Prison at Loda ... great white hopes, Vern Van Zant!
-
The tall, telegenic Lindsay was viewed as the "great white hope" of American urban liberalism.
Academic text (2005) -
Many fans see the young athlete as the next great white hope in sports.
Synonyms
7
3.7
A person, place, or idea that gives people hope during hard times
3
7.7
A person or thing likely to bring success in a field
A person who brings hope and a feeling of a better future
Antonyms
223
1.7
A feeling of sadness or being let down when something you wanted does not happen
How Promising
Surface Forms
Morphology
The words 'great' and 'hope' transparently signal a strong expectation that someone will succeed, so a B1 learner who knows those constituents could infer the basic sense of 'a person expected to achieve success'. However, the modifier 'white' carries cultural/racial and historical connotations (and can be interpreted literally), which are language- and culture-specific and not predictable from the parts alone, so the expression is not fully compositional.
Etymology
Great white hope may come from early boxing, when people looked for a great white hope, a white fighter who would beat the black champion. That's why today great white hope means 'a person expected to bring great success' in a situation where others have failed.