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yellow peril

noun

Etymology

Of yellow + peril, modeled on earlier French péril jaune. Compare yellow as a racist term for East Asian people. Attested in English from the 1890s. The French cognate is attested from the 1880s.

  1. derived from péril jaune

Definitions

  1. The alleged threat to Western nations by East Asians, especially Chinese or Japanese…

    The alleged threat to Western nations by East Asians, especially Chinese or Japanese people, due to their vast population, non-Western cultures, or supposed antagonism to the West.

    • I cannot, after a survey necessarily crammed with conjecture, conceive that the Yellow Peril will devastate Europe, or endanger the East Indies, though it may change their populations.

  2. East Asian nations or peoples, conceived as threatening.

    • It was such a journey as I had taken once before, early in our pursuit of the genius of the Yellow Peril; but this was infinitely more terrible; for now we were utterly in Fu-Manchu’s power.

  3. Alternative letter-case form of yellow peril.

The neighborhood

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sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA