Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A secret society organized in the South after the Civil War to reassert white supremacy by means of terrorism.
- noun A secret fraternal organization of similar intent founded in Georgia in 1915.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In United States history, a secret oath-bound organization, also called simply Kuklux, which arose in the Southern States after the civil war of 1861-65, among the participants in or sympathizers with secession, the members of which (or persons passing as members) perpetrated many outrages, by whipping, expelling, or murdering persons obnoxious to them, especially negroes and new-comers from the north.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- proper noun A secret society that uses terrorism to promote white supremacy. It primarily operated in the southern United States of America during the mid-1900s.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a secret society of white Southerners in the United States; was formed in the 19th century to resist the emancipation of slaves; used terrorist tactics to suppress Black people
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word Ku Klux Klan.
Examples
-
The name Ku Klux Klan has been used by three entirely different organizations in the U.S.
-
As politicians and columnists across the country debate the life and legacy of the late Sen. Robert Byrd, the West Virginian's membership in the Ku Klux Klan has been a sticking point for many.
Robert Byrd: KKK Says Late Senator 'Wasn't A Klansman Long Enough To Get His Sheet Broke In' 2010
-
History shows that the Ku Klux Klan was the terrorist arm of the Democrat Party.
-
And so, quite innocently, a new social club called the Ku Klux Klan was created to provide recreation for Confederate veterans.
Contemporary News Accounts Undermine GOP Denials on Confederate Statues 2009
-
Not only is Byrd the longest serving senator in the US Senate, he used to be a leader of the white supremacist group known as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).
Obama Receives A Possibly Symbolic Endorsement From Senator Byrd 2008
-
Whereas the Ku Klux Klan was the terrorist arm of the Democratic Party, and their primary goal was to intimidate and terrorize African American voters, Republicans who moved South to protect African Americans and any other whites who supported them
-
And sometimes when we forgot that place, there was a cadre of Friends of the Black People called the Ku Klux Klan, whose job was to remind us what our place was and to put us back.
Life Lit by Some Large Vision Ossie Davis 2006
-
He said, "the Ku Klux Klan was a peaceful organization and did a lot of good."
-
The Ku Klux Klan is a home-grown terror organization that the federal government countenanced for 100 years as a sort of paramilitary to the police departments in Southern states.
-
America's Ku Klux Klan, which is best known for burning threatening crosses outside the homes of civil rights activists, and for lynching negroes in the Southern states of the USA.
dinkum commented on the word Ku Klux Klan
WORD: Ku Klux Klan
ETYMOLOGIES:
(1) ' The name is probably derived from the Greek word kuklos (κύκλος) which means circle, suggesting a circle or band of brothers. '
-- Wikipedia. << http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan#Overview:_Three_Klans >>
(2) In his 1891 story The Five Orange Pips Arthur Conan Doyle has Sherlock Holmes reading aloud to Dr. Watson from the "American Encyclopaedia". The encyclopedia article from which Holmes quotes, states that the name Ku Klux Klan has an onomatopoeiac origin: ' "Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to the sound produced by cocking a rifle. . ." '
-- 1891 ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE. The Five Orange Pips. Chapter 15.
EXAMPLE::
< 13 >:
HOLMES: ' "Now, for such a case as the one which has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the American Encyclopaedia which stands upon the shelf beside you. . . "
< 15 >:
HOLMES: "In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an individual and becomes the badge of a society."
WATSON: "But of what society?"
"Have you never --" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and sinking his voice --"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?"
"I never have."
Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it is," said he presently:
"Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to the sound produced by cocking a rifle . . ." '
August 29, 2013