'Woke' Has Been Added To The Oxford English Dictionary

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) added the word "woke" in its quarterly update in June, with editors also researching to find the earliest examples of the word's use.

The OED defines woke as follows:

woke, adjective: Originally: well-informed, up-to-date. Now chiefly: alert to racial or social discrimination and injustice; frequently in stay woke.

According to Katherine Martin, head of Oxford's U.S. dictionaries, before the word became synonymous with being aware, it was simply used to mean awake. One of the earliest examples Martin found was for an event in the 1920s called the "Stay Woke Ball" in Harlem, which ran from 5 p.m. to 5 a.m. Only around the 1960s did the word begin to take on the meaning that it is now associated with.

Since its adding to the OED, the word has taken on another meaning. "Woke" has become a popular buzzword used by the political right to refer to anything vaguely left-leanning or associated with the Democratic party. Elon Musk and Donald Trump have both made repeated references using the word. The former has Tweeted about the "woke vindvirus" and the latter even used the word in his Joint Address to Congress this year, "Our country will be woke no longer... We believe that whether you are a doctor, an accountant, a lawyer, or an air traffic controller, you should be hired and promoted based on skill and competence, not race or gender.”

Noteabely, the word has been used in Childish Gambino's "Redbone," with the song's chorus being "But stay woke / Ni**as creepin'."

The song made an appearance in Jordan Peele's well-received directorial feature film debut, Get Out. Following its release, Peele talked about why he used the track in his movie.

"Well, first of all, I love the 'Stay Woke' [lyric] — that's what this movie is about," Peele said in an interview with HipHopDX. "I wanted to make sure that this movie satisfied the black horror movie audience's need for characters to be smart and do things that intelligent and observant people would do."