mansplain

English

WOTD – 1 June 2016

Etymology

Blend of man +‎ explain, equivalent to man +‎ -splain.

Pronunciation

• enPR: măn-splānʹ
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /manˈspleɪn/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /mænˈspleɪn/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪn
• Hyphenation: man‧splain

Verb

mansplain (third-person singular simple present mansplains, present participle mansplaining, simple past and past participle mansplained)

1. (informal, derogatory) To explain (something) condescendingly (to a female listener), especially to explain something the listener already knows, presuming that she has an inferior understanding of it merely because she is female.
   • 2011 February 1, Jason Linkins, “What’s behind the drive to redefine rape in new and insane ways?”, in The Huffington Post‎^[1], archived from the original on 1 April 2016:

     But what's getting all of the attention in the bill is the part where legislators have banded together to mansplain the various shadings of the crime of "rape" to America.

   • 2012 May 18, Sarah Seltzer, “Can Occupy fight back against the war on women?”, in The Nation‎^[2], archived from the original on 14 August 2013:

     There were some Occupy-style solutions: those whose voices dominate should “step back” for an entire meeting. […] Men should notice when they are “mansplaining” (this one got a thunderous ovation).

   • 2015 February 27, Robin James, Resilience & Melancholy: Pop Music, Feminism, Neoliberalism‎^[3], Alresford, Hants: Zero Books, →ISBN:

     Positioning himself as the white guy mansplaining to a black woman what’s best for her, The New York Times’s John Caramanica argues that Rihanna’s attempt, on the album, “to make public art with the person who physically abused you is immature, pre-feminist, post-ethics.”

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:mansplain.

Derived terms

• mansplainer
• mansplaining
• mansplainy
• mansplanation

 

Related terms

• cissplain
• femsplain
• momsplain
• straightsplain
• whitesplain
• womansplain

 

Translations

Translations

• Afrikaans: manspliseer
• French: mecspliquer (fr), pénispliquer (fr) (Canada)
• German: herrklären, mansplainen
• Hebrew: הִסְגְּבִּיר (hisgbír)
• Spanish: machoexplicar
• Swedish: mansplaina (sv)

See also

• male answer syndrome
• -splain

Anagrams

• maslin pan, plainsman