*SET-U

English word origin

Etymology of bigot

From French bigot (“a sanctimonious person; a religious hypocrite”), from Middle French bigot, from Old French bigot, of disputed origin. It is most often believed to have derived from the identical Old French derogatory

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In this entry · 1 source sections

The source etymologies

Wiktionary via Kaikki / Wiktextract

The source reports below are imported and unreviewed by *SET-U. Separate numbered origins and differing source variants are preserved; agreement within this extraction is not independent corroboration.

Unnumbered source etymology

Original entry ↗
noun

One who is narrow-mindedly devoted to their own ideas and groups, and intolerant of (people of) differing ideas, races, genders, religions, politics, etc. · One who is overly pious in matters of religion, often hypocritically or else superstitiously so.

Selected source glosses provide context, not a complete modern definition inventory

From French bigot (“a sanctimonious person; a religious hypocrite”), from Middle French bigot, from Old French bigot, of disputed origin. It is most often believed to have derived from the identical Old French derogatory term bigot applied to the overly religious Normans, said to be known for frequently swearing Middle English bi God (“by God”) (compare Old English bī god, Middle High German bī got, Middle Dutch bi gode), which is also thought to be the origin of the surname Bigott, Bygott. (Compare the French use of "godons" and "goddamns" to refer to the English in Joan of Arc's time, and les sommobiches (see son of a bitch) during World War I). From meaning "someone overly religious" it came to mean "someone overly devoted to their own religious opinion", and then to its current sense. The French Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales supports the Germanic origin theory above. Liberman however opines that this has "too strong a taste of a folk etymological guess invented in retrospect" and prefers Grammont et al.'s theory that it derives from Albigot (“inhabitant of Albi”), named after the commune in southern France where Catharism (also known as Albigensianism) is thought to have originated. However, neither the Oxford English Dictionary nor Online Etymology Dictionary list Grammont and Liberman's theory among their possible origins. Compare typologically Russian ханжа́ (xanžá) (< Ottoman Turkish حاجی (hacı, “Kaaba pilgrim”)).

Relationships mentioned by the source

These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.

  • Borrowed-form mentionbigotfr
  • Derivation mentionbigotfrm
  • Derivation mentionbigotfro
  • Derivation mentionbi Godenm
Inspect preserved source fields

Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.

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        "3": "bigot",
        "4": "",
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      },
      "expansion": "French bigot (“a sanctimonious person; a religious hypocrite”)"
    },
    {
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      "expansion": "Middle French bigot"
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        "3": "bigot"
      },
      "expansion": "Old French bigot"
    },
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        "4": "",
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      },
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    },
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      "expansion": "Middle High German bī got"
    },
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        "2": "",
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      },
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        "1": "ru",
        "2": "ханжа́"
      },
      "expansion": "Russian ханжа́ (xanžá)"
    },
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    }
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      "bigot#Old_French"
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      "bigot",
      "bigot#Old_French"
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      "bi God#Middle_English"
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      "Bigott",
      "Bigott#English"
    ],
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      "Bygott",
      "Bygott#English"
    ],
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      "\"godons\"",
      "godon#Middle_French"
    ],
    [
      "\"goddamns\"",
      "goddam#French"
    ],
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      "son of a bitch",
      "son of a bitch#English"
    ],
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      "Albigot",
      "Albigot#Old_French"
    ],
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      "Albi",
      "Albi#English"
    ],
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      "Catharism",
      "Catharism#English"
    ],
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      "ханжа́",
      "ханжа#Russian"
    ],
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      "حاجی",
      "حاجی#Ottoman_Turkish"
    ],
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    ]
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  "references": [],
  "descendants": [],
  "lexical": [
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        "One who is narrow-mindedly devoted to their own ideas and groups, and intolerant of (people of) differing ideas, races, genders, religions, politics, etc.",
        "One who is overly pious in matters of religion, often hypocritically or else superstitiously so."
      ],
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  "omittedAuxiliaryFields": {
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}

Where this record stops

This page does not supply an independently verified sound-change sequence, first-use manuscript or complete family tree unless a cited analysis explicitly establishes one. Missing detail here is a limit of this record—not a claim that humanity knows nothing more.

An older meaning does not determine what a word must mean today. Follow the sources, preserve disagreements, and keep ancestry separate from interpretation.

Contribute located evidence for bigot →

Source and snapshot

Imported from Wiktionary contributors; extracted by Tatu Ylonen / Wiktextract / Kaikki.org. Selected fields are reformatted and grouped; wording, source identity and etymology sections are retained. CC-BY-SA-4.0 applies to the imported source material.

Dump: 2026-10-01 · Extracted: 2026-10-30. These are snapshot dates, not the word’s first attestation or the page’s revision date.

Source entry and bibliography ↗Wiktionary revision history ↗Acquisition and rights ledger
Machine-source provenance
Source SHA-256
5ff2c072f8099f2d2ce484bd6957bf179f046d2ad37bc36555edf8bb84cb5291
Import run
73216b9a9b78ed3830994bf853103716f5a4dc57099e371e9f8fdc468facca26
Permanent entry ID
w-Ymlnb3Q