Excessive and unreasonable belief that your own country, group, or cause is better than all others, often leading to unfair treatment of outsiders.
Derived from the French surname Chauvin in the early 19th century, originally describing extreme French nationalism after the Napoleonic Wars. The suffix '-ism' transforms the personal name into an ideology. Modern usage expanded to describe any form of unreasoning group loyalty or superiority.
The word started as French satire about their own excessive patriotism, but it became so useful that English speakers adopted it—and now we use it for everything from male chauvinism to sports team bias, proving that a good insult transcends its original target.
Historically gendered as 'male chauvinism' in 20th-century discourse, which reinforced the association of bias and blind loyalty with masculinity, obscuring that bias exists across all genders equally.
Use without assuming or defaulting to gender qualification; when discussing gender-specific chauvinism, specify 'male,' 'female,' or 'in-group' to avoid naturalizing male chauvinism as the default.
["in-group favoritism","nationalist fervor","discriminatory loyalty"]
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