Fourth World

English

Etymology

After First World, Second World, and Third World.

Proper noun

the Fourth World

1. Collectively, peoples living nomadic, pastoral, hunter-gatherer or other ways of life outside the modern industrial norm.
2. (Hopi religion) Synonym of Túwaquachi
3. (informal, derogatory, attributive) A notional standard of living or level of development lower than that in the stereotyped Third World.
   • 2022 February 3, Joel Stein, “How Miami became the most important city in America”, in Financial Times‎^[1], archived from the original on 2022-02-16:

     “Three of the deadliest structural collapses in the last 10 years occurred in one county. That’s not even including the other structural failures that were not deadly. One county, dude. This is a third-world government and a fourth-world infrastructure, at the risk of insulting the fourth world.”

   • 2024 October 23, Nicholas Eberstadt, “Who’s Afraid of Korean Reunification?”, in Milken Institute Review‎^[2]:

     How did it become what we might as well call a fourth world country that happens to possess intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear payloads?

Translations

Traditional civilizations

• Catalan: Quart Món m
• French: quart-monde (fr) m
• Georgian: მეოთხე სამყარო (meotxe samq̇aro)
• Polish: Czwarty Świat m
• Spanish: cuarto mundo m
• Thai: โลกที่สี่

Hopi world

• French: Quatrième Monde m, Quatrième Univers m

See also

• Fifth World
• First World
• Second World
• Sixth World
• Third World