Wiktionary

oppression

EnglishEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Middle English oppression, from Old French oppression, from Latin oppressiō (“a pressing down, violence, oppression”), from opprimō; see oppress.

PronunciationEdit

  • IPA(key): /əˈpɹɛʃən/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛʃən
  • Hyphenation: op‧pres‧sion

NounEdit

oppression (countable and uncountable, plural oppressions)

  1. The exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner.
    • 1614, Walter Ralegh [i.e., Walter Raleigh], The Historie of the World […], London: […] William Stansby for Walter Burre, […], OCLC 37026674, (please specify |book=1 to 5):
      Oh, by what plots, by what forswearings, betrayings, oppressions, imprisonments, tortures, poisonings, and under what reasons of state and politic subtilty, have these forenamed kings […] pulled the vengeance of God upon themselves […]
    • 2008, Pelosi, Nancy, “A Voice That Will Be Heard”, in Know Your Power: A Message to America's Daughters‎[1], Doubleday, →ISBN, LCCN 2008020607, OCLC 690480794, pages 95-96:
      "Tibet challenges the conscience of the world," I told the audience at a gathering outside the town's main temple. "If freedom-loving people throughout the world do not speak out against China's oppression in China and Tibet, we have lost all moral authority to speak on behalf of human rights anywhere in the world."
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:oppression.
  2. The act of oppressing, or the state of being oppressed.
    Extreme freedom is followed by extreme oppression, said Plato.
  3. A feeling of being oppressed.
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 4293071:
      […] St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London. Close-packed, crushed by the buttressed height of the railway viaduct, rendered airless by huge walls of factories, it at once banished lively interest from a stranger's mind and left only a dull oppression of the spirit.
    Our oppression was lifted by the reappearance of the sun.

HyponymsEdit

Derived termsEdit

Related termsEdit

TranslationsEdit

Further readingEdit

FrenchEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Latin oppressiō.

PronunciationEdit

  • IPA(key): /ɔ.pʁɛ.sjɔ̃/, /ɔ.pʁe.sjɔ̃/
  • Audio(file)

NounEdit

oppression f (plural oppressions)

  1. oppression
  2. (Louisiana) asthma

Further readingEdit

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