WORD OF THE DAY: HEGEMONY
noun | hih-JEM-uh-nee
What It Means
Hegemony refers to influence or control over another country, group of people, etc.
// The two nations have for centuries struggled for regional hegemony.
Examples of HEGEMONY
“Beyond Hollywood’s scrambled economics, one of the biggest threats to its hegemony is social media—TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and X-formerly-known-as-Twitter—with which it has always had an uncomfortable relationship, alternately its victim or master.” — Peter Biskind, The Hollywood Reporter, 26 Jan. 2024
Did You Know?
Hegemony refers to a kind of domination. It was borrowed in the mid-16th century from the Greek word hēgemonia, a noun formed from the verb hēgeisthai, “to lead.” At first hegemony was used specifically to refer to the control once wielded by ancient Greek states; later it was applied to domination by other political actors. By the 19th century, the word had acquired a second sense referring to the social or cultural influence wielded by a dominant entity over others of its kind, a sense employed by design scholar Joshua Langman when describing the use of found objects by French artist Marcel Duchamp (he of notorious readymade Fountain fame) as a means “to question and criticise the values of the artistic hegemony by eschewing craft entirely.”
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
