mansplaining

English

Etymology

Blend of man +‎ explaining, or from mansplain +‎ -ing.

Pronunciation

• enPR: măn-splānʹĭng
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /manˈspleɪnɪŋ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /mænˈspleɪnɪŋ/
• Rhymes: -eɪnɪŋ
• Hyphenation: man‧splain‧ing

Noun

mansplaining (uncountable)

1. (informal, derogatory) The act of condescendingly explaining something, particularly by a man to a woman, in order to appear knowledgeable, or from a mistaken presumption that she has an inferior understanding of the topic.
   • 2009 May 8, Karen Healey, “A woman's born to weep and fret”, in Karen Healey's Livejournal‎^[1]:

     Mansplaining isn't just the act of explaining while male, of course; many men manage to explain things every day without in the least insulting their listeners... Mansplaining is when a dude tells you, a woman, how to do something you already know how to do, or how you are wrong about something you are actually right about, or miscellaneous and inaccurate "facts" about something you know a hell of a lot more about than he does.

   • 2014 December 1, Jeet Heer, Sweet Lechery: Reviews, Essays & Profiles, The Porcupine's Quill, →ISBN, page 179:

     It's hard to appreciate the full pathological depths of mansplaining unless you've read late-period Heinlein, an experience comparable to being trapped in an elevator for six hours with a boorish know-it-all offering his theories on economics, politics, sex, aesthetics, military strategy, investing and myriad other topics.

   • 2015 December 7, James Taranto, “You're Being Hysterical. Calm Down.”, in The Wall Street Journal:

     “Cognitive therapy” is the fancy clinical term for what is otherwise known as “mansplaining.”

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:mansplaining.

Related terms

• botsplaining
• cisplaining
• femsplaining
• momsplaining
• straightsplaining
• whitesplaining
• womansplaining

 

Translations

Translations

• Basque: arzalpen
• Finnish: miesselitys
• French: mecsplication (fr) m, mecspliquer (fr) m
• German: Herrklären n
• Hebrew: הַסְגַּבְרָה (he) f (hasgvará)
• Italian: minchiarimento m
• Japanese: マンスプレイニング (mansupureiningu)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: mansplaining m or f

• Spanish: machoexplicación f

Verb

mansplaining

1. present participle and gerund of mansplain

See also

• male answer syndrome
• hepeat