No, I don't want to start a fight. I'm truly curious about that word since months. The plan to start this thread has been in my mind for long and just has been triggered by another thread.

Communicating in a foreign language is interesting in many respects. Once one surpasses a certain level of fluency one stops looking up unknown words in a dictionary. One gets a feeling of the meaning from the context. It's like a young child seldom asks what a new word means and learns the correct use by listening. That's what I do in English, with rare exceptions.

I have an additional help by the fact that many words of foreign origin are more or less the same in English and German. So when I first encountered the word 'bigot' I did assume it must mean the same as the German 'bigott' (the English word is a noun and the German an adjective).

I very rarely encountered the word 'bigot' (bigoted, bigotry) before Mudcat. That has changed dramatically. The word is used now very frequently (I have stopped counting after I had read that word being used more than 30 times by one single poster in one single thread). In addition to that, the word obviously is used in a quite different sense than our word 'bigott'. And even more, my impression was (and still is) that the use of this word differs between British and American posters.

That was one of the rare moments in recent years I looked into a (British) dictionary. The first meaning (of bigoted) mentioned was 'overly pious' which happens to be exactly the meaning I know for the German word 'bigott'. I have never yet seen the use of 'bigot' in that sense in Mudcat. The second meaning was 'obstinately and intolerantly devoted to one's own church or belief'. Still fitting the German meaning. That was it but these two definitions didn't fit the use of the word 'bigot' by American Mudcatters. Well, it was a British and older dictionary.

So, some weeks ago, I looked up the definition in an American dictionary at the very same time when Bearded Bruce gave what I considered (perhaps wrongly) a completely wrong definition of 'bigot' (I don't recall the thread title). Coincidentally, just after I had read the definition (from memory) 'displaying intolerance and prejudice against people of different faith, race, or political leaning' Nerd explained to Bearded Bruce that a 'bigot' could never be a person speaking disparagingly of someone with another political opinion, but only doing so in relation to other races and faiths.

I got more curious and looked up this word in all dictionaries I could find (close to ten). The definitions are wildly different, more than for other words. Some dictionaries (American) even did not mention the original meaning of 'overly pious' and only had the meaning (roughly) 'speaking/thinking disparagingly of persons belonging to another group'. Which groups were mentioned differed. All dictionaries mentioned persons of another faith, some mentioned race, less often political opinion, once just any identifiable group of persons was mentioned.

The newer the dictionary, the less often 'overly pious' (or a similar meaning) was mentioned at all and the more groups being spoken of disparagingly could make the speaker a bigot. My impression is that in American English this word becomes an insult for any person speaking contemptuously about any group of which he isn't a member. We have two words with a clear but restricted meaning serving this purpose: sexist and racist. So what can one do when looking for a word meaning roughly the same as racist when addressing a person one perceives as speaking with contempt or lack of respect about Hindus, Spanish speaking people, Bush supporters, Karatekas? 'Bigot' seems to be the word of choice in American English (though I have also seen the word 'racist' been used in Mudcat when someone had made a nasty remark about another religion).

British, Irish (they have the beautiful word 'sectarian') and Down under posters use this word rarely.

In German, the use is still very restricted. If I would speak disparagingly about Christians I wouldn't be 'bigott' for I am an atheist and cannot be 'obstinately dovoted to my own church'. If I was a Muslim and did the same just so without relating to my own faith I still wouldn't be 'bigott'. But if I was a Muslim and did the same arguing openly from my faith I would be 'bigott'.

I hope noone gets the impression that I consider one meaning or one definition better than the other. I'm just curious how you use this word and what it means for you.

And I have two specific questions:
(1) To Non-American Mudcatters: Is my impression correct that you rarely use the word and if so in a more restricted meaning?
(2) To American Mudcatters: has the original meaning of 'overly pious' disappreared so completely that it is acceptable that this meaning is not even mentioned in a dictionary?

Wolfgang