Talk:wannabe

Inconsistency

The example for wannabe as a noun uses the word as an adjective.

It's attributive use of a noun, like "tractor" in "tractor parts". Equinox ◑ 10:07, 30 April 2015 (UTC)

Page re-creation

I see a warning that I'm recreating a previously deleted page. Without details of previous discussions, I don't know if this topic is already a dead horse. With that introduction, let the beating begin:

I've seen wannabe spelled with two e's: "wannabee". Other dictionaries, which shall remain nameless here, list both spellings. If this Wiktionary entry intends to specifically disallow the double e spelling, maybe it should do so explicitly.

Here are some, admittedly weak, references:

• http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Deaf-Wannabee/
• http://www.myspace.com/wannabee_cafe
• Wannabee Miniature Pinschers
• Mean Girls: Wannabee (mobile phone game)

C paul butler 15:46, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

Dutch entry

"Dutch: Wilt zijn". Dat is nonsense. "Wilt zijn" is not an expression on its own in Dutch, just a part of a phrase, without much meaning out of its context.

Wannabe as verb

Wannabe as a noun is a word. I don't think that wannabe as a verb is. The example given is simply a usage that shows how the speaker is pronouncing his sentence (by running words together). This type of written usage, like spellings used to show a certain regional pronunciation, don't make this a word. Unless someone has a citation, I'm going to delete. --66.28.243.126 20:24, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

I deleted the Verb heading, as the prior editor hit the nail on the head: the written form of pronunciation habits cannot be labeled a verb in this case.

RFV discussion: January 2016–May 2017

The following discussion has been moved from Wiktionary:Requests for verification (permalink).

This discussion is no longer live and is left here as an archive. Please do not modify this conversation, but feel free to discuss its conclusions.

---

wannabe

"Someone who pretends unity with an oppressor or the oppressed. A scab who crosses the picket line is a wannabe hoping for crumbs in exchange for treachery." Really? What do they "want to be"? Chambers has no such sense. Can we also confirm/deny the newly added synonyms bootlicker and suckup? Equinox ◑ 19:00, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

Those synonyms seems more like hyponyms coordinate terms (perhaps not all wannabe's go to such an extreme...). Prob better to list them under that heading or 'See also' (?) Leasnam (talk) 19:55, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

I would say that second sense (if verified) is dated...it reminds me of the mindset of some from the 1940's and 1950's in segregated America Leasnam (talk) 19:59, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

We could probably find missing definitions for large numbers of words if we could find a corpus of leftist English-language newspapers. But the oppressors have made that impossible. 21:13, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

Hmm. I'd say the usage example is just sense 1, but nevertheless, there are some promising hits (although the sense would be better as "Someone who aspires to join or assimilate with an oppressor or the oppressed")

• 1991, Nancie Caraway, Segregated Sisterhood: Racism and the Politics of American Feminism, Univ. of Tennessee Press →ISBN, page 95

  Contemporary Black women remain victimized by — and often perpetrators of — the "wannabe" (as in the "I wannabe white" phenomenon dramatized in Spike Lee's film School Daze) ideology that contributes to their own and their Black sisters' oppression

• 1994, Carol Camper, Miscegenation Blues: Voices of Mixed Race Women, Sister Vision Press →ISBN

  What I never want to hear again: "Mutt" "Half-breed" "Heinz 57" "Wannabe" I never want to face another door opened by a mother who calls the child of her own body racist names.

• 2014, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Outlaw Woman: A Memoir of the War Years, 1960–1975, Revised Edition, University of Oklahoma Press →ISBN, page 261

  I'm part Indian but don't know anything about being Indian. I've tried to talk with the Indians here but they called me a wannabe when I told them about my background.

Arguably, there are two separate senses here, with one being a derogatory term for someone of mixed race. Smurrayinchester (talk) 09:42, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

I feel like those citations definitely cite something, but I can't figure out what. Renard Migrant (talk) 00:21, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

I've removed the RFVed definition and added one closer to what was suggested above, based on the first two of Smurray's citations. But it could also just be removed until enough additional citations can be found that the full meaning is clearer... - -sche (discuss) 04:02, 3 May 2017 (UTC)

RFV-resolved Kiwima (talk) 18:53, 7 May 2017 (UTC)