tokenism

nounC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speech — token sits at #4,182Too rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Tokenism is making a small gesture to look fair without real change. Accused of tokenism.

The gesture is real and the change is not, which is what makes the charge sting. Tokenism is hard to distinguish from a genuine first step until you see what follows.

Definitions of tokenism

1nountokenismMaking a small gesture to look fair without real change.C2
“The appointment was called tokenism by everybody except the person appointed.”

tokenism is a gesture.

Where it comes from

Proto-Indo-European
*deyḱ- — to show, instruct, teach
Proto-Germanic
*taikną — indicator, symbol, sign
Proto-West Germanic
*taikn
Old English
tācn — sign, symbol
Middle English
token
English
token
English, today
tokenism

From token + -ism. token comes from Middle English token, taken, from Old English tācn (“sign, symbol”), from Proto-West Germanic taikn, from Proto-Germanic taikną (“indicator, symbol, sign”), from Proto-Indo-European deyḱ- (“to show, instruct, teach”) with Germanic k rather than h by Kluge's law. Cognate with Scots takin, taiken (“token, sign”), stq Teken (“sign, symbol”), West Frisian teken (“sign, mark, symbol”), Dutch teken (“sign, indication, symbol”), German Low German Teken (“sign, symbol”), {{cog|de|

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

tokenism in the wild

Some well-organised democracies, dominated long-term by a single faction, reduce their parliamentary opposition to tokenism.
Parliamentary opposition
Titus-Adams has been critical about the lack of material given to her, accusing the BBC of tokenism.
Nina Harris
Plummer's presence as the only younger player, as well as the only black player in the initial squad, gave rise to accusations of tokenism.
Calvin Plummer
UWF addresses women's illiteracy, early marriage, and tokenism in parliament, and the safety of women.
United Women Front
For most of the 20th century, minorities were often subject to tokenism, being frequently cast as supporting characters or villains.
Race in horror films

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the tācn family

token

tokenism — used too rare to measure · point at the bar for the others

betoken

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