big tent

See also: big-tent

English

WOTD – 4 July 2024

Alternative forms

big-tent (attributive)

Etymology

From big (adjective) +‎ tent, originally referring to a large tent set up to hold a public event attended by many people such as a circus or a religious meeting.^[1]

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˌbɪɡ ˈtɛnt/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Audio (General American): (file)
Rhymes: -ɛnt

Noun

big tent (plural big tents)

(idiomatic, also attributive) A group, philosophy, or social or political movement that encompasses or seeks to attract a broad range of constituents or members, or views.
Synonyms: (chiefly Australia, Britain, New Zealand) broad church, catch-all
- 1930 October, Eugene Garret Bewkes, “Humanism and Ethics”, in James H[ayden] Tufts, editor, The International Journal of Ethics: A Quarterly Devoted to the Advancement of Ethical Knowledge and Practice, volume XLI, number 1, Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, →ISSN, →JSTOR, →OCLC, pages 14–15:
  Humanism is an expansive trisyllable, a veritable "big-tent" of a word, sheltering many varieties of performance under its spreading canvas.
- 1964 September 9, “Goldwater endorsed in Mississippi”, in Graham M. Dean, editor, Porterville Evening Recorder, number 395, Porterville, Calif.: Graham M. Dean, →OCLC, page 1:
  The Democratic governor of Mississippi, Paul Johnson, has endorsed Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater. […] He said he is confident that the majority of Mississippians "Have no desire to get under Lyndon Johnson's big tent and to share the company already assembled there."
- 1995 July 10, Elizabeth Gleick [et al.], “Sobering Times for A.A.”, in Time‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2010-10-08:
  The newcomers often bring an array of ancillary problems to meetings, including emotional trauma and addiction to other drugs. As the organization metamorphoses, its supporters wonder whether A.A. [Alcoholics Anonymous] can or should be such a big tent.
- 1996 September 8, “Why Cowboys Became Kings”, in Newsweek‎^[2], New York, N.Y.: Newsweek, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-02-26:
  They are not a slice of Americana, as we usually say, but rather, a broad brush of it. While most of our successful sports franchises display some distinct personality, only the [Dallas] Cowboys offer the big tent.
- 2008 December 6, Caitlin Flanagan, Benjamin Schwarz, “Showdown in the big tent”, in The New York Times‎^[3], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-11-26:
  And here in essence is the problem with the Democrats' big tent, as well as the grounds for a wholly new kind of culture war that is probably going to make us long for the clear lines and simple enmities of the old one.
- 2018 July 4, Megan Garber, “Is #MeToo Too Big?”, in The Atlantic‎^[4], Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-11-25:
  #MeToo, that vast and disembodied and ongoing protest march, has been subject to similar dynamics: the big tent, flinging its flaps ever wider; the entropic impulse as both a matter of promise and a matter of peril.
- 2023 July 24, Jason Horowitz, “What the collapse of Spain’s far right means going forward”, in The New York Times‎^[5], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-11-08:
  Vox was established a decade ago when its leader, Santiago Abascal, split from the Popular Party, long a big center-right tent that included monarchists, libertarian supporters of same-sex marriage, ultraconservative Catholics and Spaniards who detested the independence movements of the north.

Derived terms

big tentism

Translations

group, philosophy, or social or political movement that encompasses or seeks to attract a broad range of constituents or members, or views

Finnish: kansanpuolue (fi) (political party), yleispuolue
Macedonian: please add this translation if you can

References

^ “big tent, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “big tent, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

betting

[1] “big tent, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “big tent, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

[1]