suffragetten.
/sʌfrəˈdʒɛt/, U.S. /ˌsəfrəˈdʒɛt/ Chiefly British. Now historical.
1. A woman who advocates or campaigns for women's right to vote in political elections, esp. through direct action or civil disobedience; spec. a member of the Women's Social and Political Union.The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was founded by Emmeline Pankhurst in 1903 as a breakaway group from the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. Frustrated by the lack of progress made using peaceful, constitutional methods, the WSPU adopted militant action as a means of securing the vote for women. The term suffragette was first employed by the Daily Mail newspaper, which supported women's suffrage, to distinguish WSPU members from non-militant suffragists, but was quickly adopted by the WSPU as a self-descriptor and as the title of the organization's own newspaper. Cf. suffragist n. 2.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > office > appointment to office > choosing or fact of being chosen for office > election of representative body by vote > right to vote at elections > [noun] > advocacy of extension > one who > to women
suffragist1818
woman suffragist1871
suffragette1906
1906 Daily Mail 10 Jan. (headline) Mr. Balfour and the ‘Suffragettes’.
1911 E. S. Pankhurst Suffragette (N. Y. ed.) vi. 102 The women had received a direct rebuff, and they felt that they must now act in such a way as to prove that the Suffragettes would no longer quietly submit to this perpetual ignoring of their claims.
1913 Weekly Irish Times 31 May 9/5 The militant suffragette is unwomanly, and therein lies her worst disgrace.
1928 Times 6 July 9/7 Many of the suffragettes who used formerly to meet at the Hotel Cecil to celebrate the release from prison of one of their colleagues, met there yesterday..to celebrate their victory, when the Royal Assent was given this week to the Equal Franchise Bill.
2014 Sun (Nexis) 7 Sept. When I was growing up, suffragettes like Emily Davison—who threw herself under King George V's horse at the Epsom Derby in 1913—were my heroes.
2. In extended use: a woman who is characterized as emancipated, strong-willed, assertive, etc. Also in derogatory sense: a woman who is characterized as unfeminine, stern, aggressive, bad-tempered, etc.
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1910 E. W. Quaife Mennemen Inn i. 8 Jennie. If I was him, I'd be a-takin' you, Pearl, in preferance to any o' thim lollypop loidies... Pearl. Why, Jennie! You're a regular suffragette.
1957 T. H. White Master xiii. 114 She was a bit of a suffragette. She was not going to be ignored and snubbed.
1995 L. B. Headley Zoe's Gift vii. 77 ‘You're just too mulish and ill-mannered and unladylike—’ ‘Oh, when I could be prissy and affected instead, like—’ ‘Stop sayin' I'm prissy, you little suffragette.’
Compounds
C1. General attributive, as suffragette movement, suffragette struggle, etc.
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1906 Daily Mail 16 June 7/1 Mr. Lloyd-George protested against a ‘suffragette’ interruption at one of his meetings on the ground that he favoured women's suffrage.
1907 Sphere 21 May 119/2 (caption) Mr. Bertrand Russell, Suffragette candidate.
1913 C. Weygandt Irish Plays & Playwrights iv. 91 She is a bitter, barren woman of suffragette type.
1985 Spare Rib May 51/2 Our generation, women now in their fifties and sixties, were the first to reap the full benefit of the reforms brought about by the suffragette struggle.
2006 V. Pedlar Most Dreadful Visitation v. 146 The suffragette movement and the ‘New Woman’ debate challenged what had seemed to many to be the sacred role of women as ‘angels in the house’.
C2.
suffragette colours n. the colours purple, green, and white used by the WSPU; an article of clothing, a ribbon, a rosette, etc., in these colours.
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1908 Daily Mail 1 Aug. 3/4 The Suffragettes..decorated every little boy and girl they could catch with the suffragette colours.
1913 Republican-Atlas (Monmouth, Illinois) 30 Jan. After hustling every woman wearing suffragette colors whom they met in the streets, the masculine demonstrators seized four women bodily and tried to duck them in the fountain in Trafalgar Square.
2015 Diva Nov. 47/1 Emily Wilding Davison..was fatally injured attempting to attach the suffragette colours to the King's horse at the Derby on 4 June 1913.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2019; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
suffragettev.
/sʌfrəˈdʒɛt/, U.S. /ˌsəfrəˈdʒɛt/ Chiefly British. rare.
intransitive. To advocate or campaign for women's right to vote in political elections, esp. through direct action or civil disobedience. Cf. suffragette n. 1. Now historical and in historical contexts.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > office > appointment to office > choosing or fact of being chosen for office > election of representative body by vote > right to vote at elections > [verb (intransitive)] > act as suffragette
suffragette1908
1908 Sun (Baltimore) 17 Apr. 5/7 The actress, who is appearing in ‘Girls’, was suffragetting for the first time in her professional career, and she meant to make a hit.
1914 Life 24 Dec. 1177/2 All in vain He strove to crush a soul new-risen. She suffragetted, smashed a pane And gladly spent a month in prison.
1973 J. Comyn Their Friends at Court xiv. 67 The name of Georgina Frost deserves to be remembered in the role of those who ‘suffragetted’ for women's rights.
2013 J. Hynes Up the Women (transcribed from TV programme) 1st Ser. Episode 2 [Frank] Are you suffragetting, Thomas? [Thomas] Yes I am as a matter of fact, Frank. [Frank] Do you want me to pop back and get you a marching band belt?
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2019; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1906
v.1908