us versus them
English
Alternative forms
- us-versus-them, us vs. them
Etymology
us + versus + them
Noun
us versus them (uncountable)
- 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", 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.
- 1968, "Annual Representative Meeting, Eastbourne, 1968", British Medical Journal Supplement, (7/6/1968), pp. 1–36. p. 24
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
- tribalism