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Glite Dictionary
white Anglo-Saxon Protestant

white Anglo-Saxon Protestant

1 7.2
A white person with British family background who follows Protestant Christianity and is often from a socially important group
  • noun
  • /waɪt ˈæŋɡloʊˈsæksən ˈprɒtɪstənt/
  • US
translation icon : protestante anglosajón blanco
  • "White Anglo-Saxon Protestant?" he smiled.

But I don't long for the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant elite days.

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Examples

  • The U.S. Supreme Court has always been composed almost entirely of white Anglo-Saxon Protestant men.

    Academic text (1991)

  • In many elite universities, white Anglo-Saxon Protestant individuals have historically held a significant number of leadership positions.

  • So they are not all, you know, white Anglo-Saxon, Protestant males.

  • But I don't long for the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant elite days.

    Stanford

  • Because I was not a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant or Catholic, I had to carry a gun in high school in Hastings, Nebraska.

    Blog text (1)

  • They have no empathy for anybody, anybody that doesn't fit exactly into a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant mole box, right.

    I've Had It

  • There aren't too many White Anglo-Saxon Protestants of the Evangelical persuasion in the immediate area.

    Blog text (1)

  • If a business with lifetime tenure and minuscule job turnover can bring minorities and women to the same proportions as white Anglo-Saxon Protestants in just two decades, then there is hope elsewhere.

    Academic text (2016)

  • But thank God, a majority recognized what is happening, what will ultimately happen in a short few decades: America will be—in fact already is, emotionally—not white Anglo-Saxon Protestant, but a nation of minorities.

    Blog text (34)

  • The debate about social class often centers on the privileges enjoyed by white Anglo-Saxon Protestants in American society.

Synonyms

WASP
vswhite Anglo-Saxon Protestant
  • US
24 8.2

A white American from English families who is Protestant and often part of the social elite

is the full formal phrase for the same social and religious group

Surface Forms

white Anglo-Saxon Protestant singular
white Anglo-Saxon Protestants plural

Morphology

white + Anglo-Saxon + Protestant

The phrase is compositionally transparent at the descriptive level: a B1 learner who knows 'white', 'Anglo-Saxon', and 'Protestant' can infer it refers to a white person of Anglo‑Saxon ancestry who is Protestant. However, the sociohistorical connotations (the idiomatic label referring to a socially/economically dominant group in the U.S.) are pragmatic and cultural, not fully predictable from the parts, so full meaning requires extra knowledge.

Etymology

The phrase white Anglo-Saxon Protestant names three simple things: white (skin color), Anglo-Saxon (English family roots) and Protestant, meaning a Christian who is not Catholic. It became a label for old, often rich families who had all three, so today it often means 'a socially and economically dominant group'.