Politically Correct
Meaning
Description of the practice of using speech that conforms to liberal or radical opinion by avoiding language which might cause offence to or disadvantage social minorities.
Origin
Please note: it is difficult to discuss the meaning and origin of the term ‘politically correct’ whilst avoiding expressing political opinion. I have attempted to do that below.
The terms ‘politically correct’ and ‘political correctness’, in the sense defined above, entered the language via the U.S. feminist and other left-wing movements of the 1970s. The use of ‘PC’ language quickly spread to other parts of the industrialized world. The terms had been used previously though.
The previous meaning was ‘in line with prevailing political thought or policy’. I.e. the terms previously used ‘correctness’ in its literal sense and without any particular reference to language that some might consider illiberal or discriminatory. That usage dates back to the 18th century. For example, J. Wilson’s comments in U.S. Republic, 1793:
“The states, rather than the people, for whose sake the states exist, are frequently the objects which attract and arrest our principal attention… Sentiments and expressions of this inaccurate kind prevail in our common, even in our convivial, language… ‘The United States’, instead of the ‘People of the United States’, is the toast given. This is not politically correct.”
The earliest printed reference that is unambiguous in it’s use of ‘politically correct’ in its current commonly understood sense is Toni Cade’s The Black Woman, 1970:
“A man cannot be politically correct and a chauvinist too.”
