Uncle Tom

noun

Uncle Tom is defined as an ethnic slur directed at an African American man who appears to be acting especially servile or submissive towards Caucasians. The expression comes from a novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe called Uncle Tom's Cabin in which Tom was a black man who showed great deference and obedience to whites.

An example of Uncle Tom is an insult addressed towards a black man who seems too quick to do things to please white men.

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"Uncle Tom." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 28 May 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/uncle-tom>.

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Uncle Tom. (n.d.). Retrieved May 28th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/uncle-tom

Uncle Tom

Informal a black person whose behavior toward whites is regarded as fawning or servile: a term of contempt

Origin of Uncle Tom

after the main character, an elderly black slave, in Harriet Beecher Stowe's antislavery novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852)

Link/Cite

Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"Uncle Tom." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 28 May 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/uncle-tom>.

APA Style

Uncle Tom. (n.d.). Retrieved May 28th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/uncle-tom

Uncle Tom

noun

A black person who is regarded as being subservient or excessively deferential to white people.

Origin of Uncle Tom

After Uncle Tom , a character in Uncle Tom's Cabin , a novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Related Forms:

Uncle Tom′ism
noun

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.