The problematic etymology of “Plagiarism”: Why inclusion requires this term’s replacement

Abstract

As part of the racial reckoning precipitated in the United States by the murder of George Floyd, there has been a widespread movement to eliminate symbols that celebrate and memorialize events, persons, and positions from the past that are associated with racism and/or colonialism. These calls have focused on terminology that could offend owing to its phonetic association with offensive terms (e.g., “niggardly”), or to a folk etymology that identifies it as having racist or colonialist origins (e.g., “picnic”), or to their actual etymology (e.g., “sold down the river”). But there has as yet been no call to replace the term “plagiarism” with a synonym that lacks its problematic (but overlooked) etymology. This paper will correct this oversight. It will offer an overview of the various ways in which persons are responding to the need for greater inclusivity by remaking the symbolic world in which we live. It will then argue that “plagiarism” is a term that should be replaced. It concludes by addressing some of the objections that have been leveled against the removal and replacement of symbols that reference or evoke the non-inclusive past.