us versus them

English

Alternative forms

• us-versus-them, us vs. them

Etymology

us + versus + them

Noun

us versus them (uncountable)

1. A state of opposition between two groups, mostly based on group membership.
   • 1968, "Annual Representative Meeting, Eastbourne, 1968", British Medical Journal Supplement, (7/6/1968), pp. 1–36. p. 24

     The inevitable result of disenfranchisement was that the disinterested would become even more disinterested; the schism “us” versus “them” would grow; and special groups—e.g., women members—would feel that they were inadequately represented.

   • 1981, Martha Crenshaw, “The Causes of Terrorism”, in Comparative Politics, (13) 4, (July 1981), pp. 379-99. p. 390:

     Is there “us versus them” polarization or ethnic or religious prejudice that might sanction or prompt violence toward an out-group?

   • 1983, M. Stanley Whitley, "Hopefully: A Shibboleth in the English Adverb System", American Speech, (58) 2 (Summer 1983), pp. 126–49. p. 132

     From this social perception follows the corollary us-versus-them argument. Anyone who learns that this marker of identity “offends the ear” joins the select group of those in the know, and will have a criterion by which he can both identify and judge the out-group who “desire to be up with the latest in thing,” and reassert his own membership in the club of those with taste.

Usage notes

Commonly used as an appositive: We must rise above us versus them thinking.

Related terms

• us against them, us-and-them

See also

• ingroups and outgroups
• tribalism