FromFrenchbigot(“a sanctimonious person; a religious hypocrite”), fromMiddle Frenchbigot, fromOld Frenchbigot, of disputed origin. It is most often believed to have derived from the identical Old French derogatory termbigot applied to the overly religiousNormans, said to be known for frequently swearingMiddle Englishbi God(“by God”) (compareOld Englishbī god,Middle High Germanbī got,Middle Dutchbi gode), which is also thought to be the origin of the surnameBigott,Bygott. (Compare the French use of"goddamns" to refer to the English in Joan of Arc's time, andles sommobiches (seeson of a bitch) during World War I). From meaning "someone overly religious" it came to mean "someone overly devoted to their own religious opinion", and then to its current sense.[1]
The FrenchCentre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales supports the Germanic origin theory above. Liberman however opines that this has "too strong a taste of a folk etymological guess invented in retrospect" and prefers Grammont et al.'s theory that it derives fromAlbigot(“inhabitant ofAlbi”),[2] named after the commune in southern France whereCatharism (also known as Albigensianism[3]) is thought to have originated. However, neither theOxford English Dictionary norOnline Etymology Dictionary list Grammont and Liberman's theory among their possible origins.
2023 April 13, Aletha Adu, Jessica Elgot, Kiran Stacey, “Senior Conservatives hit out at Suella Braverman’s ‘racist rhetoric’”, inThe Guardian[1],→ISSN:
A former senior minister from Boris Johnson’s government told the Guardian they believed Braverman was a “real racistbigot”.
1653, Urquhart, translatingGargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais, book 1:
He is nobigot or hypocrite, he is not torn and divided betwixt reality and appearance, no wretch of a rugged and peevish disposition, but honest, jovial, resolute, and a good fellow.
1664, Henry More,A Modest Enquiry Into the Mystery of Iniquity, page436:
Thus one part of their Church becomes Sotts andBigots; and the other that behold this Scene of things, though they profess themselves of their Church, become a company of profane Atheists and clancular Deriders of all Religion.[…] Nay it is a question whether those that do more superstitiously cleave to them, doe it not rather in a kind of confusion and obstupefaction of mind out of fear and suspicion, then any determinate assurance or firm belief of the things they outwardly profess.
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