Woke
Etymology
From African American Vernacular English "stay woke," a warning to remain alert to racism and injustice, recorded as early as a 1930s Lead Belly recording and revived by Erykah Badu’s 2008 song "Master Teacher" and the Black Lives Matter movement around 2014. From the mid-2010s it was widely adopted, and then, especially from around 2020, taken up as a mocking pejorative by critics of progressive politics. The term is now contested and used disparagingly across political lines — a shift many of its original users have criticized.
adjective · /WOHK/
Alert to social and especially racial injustice — and, in later contested use, a pejorative for perceived progressive excess.
What it names
It names a stance of active awareness of systemic injustice; it has since become one of the most fought-over words in politics, carried in opposite directions by the people who use it.
Example
The word "woke" now means almost opposite things depending on who’s saying it.
Related idea
Politically correct traveled the same arc a generation earlier — a term for sensitivity to others that was reclaimed by opponents as an insult.