woke

Etymology 1

Shortened from woken or woke(n) up. The sense of being aware of social injustice dates to at least the 1930s.

adj

1. (dialect, African-American Vernacular or slang) Awake: conscious and not asleep.
2. (originally African-American Vernacular, slang) Alert, aware of what is going on, or well-informed, especially in racial and other social justice issues.
   Waking up is a damn sight harder than going to sleep, but we’ll stay woke up longer. 1942, J. Saunders Redding, Negro Digest, volume 01
   If You’re Woke You Dig It [title] May 20, 1962, William Melvin Kelley, “If You’re Woke You Dig It”, in The New York Times, page 45
   I been sleeping all my life. And now that Mr. Garvey done woke me up, I’m gon stay woke. And I’m gon help him wake up other black folk. 1972, Barry Beckham, Garvey Lives!
   What if there was no niccas / Only master teachers? / I stay woke (dreams dreams) 2008, Erykah Badu (lyrics and music), “Master Teacher”, in New Amerykah Part One (4th World War)
   […] stay woke[,] people of color, / let us occupy this dissent 2014, Lynn Sweeting, WomanSpeak, A Journal of Writing and Art by Caribbean Women, volume 7
3. (by extension, slang, often derogatory) Holding progressive views or attitudes, principally with regard to social justice.
   But the cultural conflict between these two post-revolutionary styles — between frat guys and feminist bluestockings, Gamergaters and the diversity police, alt-right provocateurs and “woke” dudebros, the mouthbreathers who poured hate on the all-female “Ghostbusters” and the tastemakers who pretended it was good — is likely here to stay. 2016-08-14, Ross Douthat, “A Playboy for President”, in The New York Times
   Like, if I tweet or hashtag about how you didn’t do something right or used the wrong verb, then I can sit back and feel pretty good about myself, cause, "Man, you see how woke I was, I called you out." That’s not activism. That’s not bringing about change. October 29, 2019, Emily S. Rueb, Derrick Bryson Taylor, quoting Barack Obama, “Obama on Call-Out Culture: ‘That’s Not Activism’”, in The New York Times
   If this were actually true, you would expect real traction for the wokest candidates in the Democratic presidential race. But it’s been just the opposite. The woke candidates have been the weakest, electorally speaking, and the defining attribute of the Democratic primary has been a preoccupation with the voters that put Trump in the White House. 2019-12-06, Jamelle Bouie, “Why the ‘Wokest’ Candidates Are the Weakest”, in The New York Times
   [Kevin Smith is] also baffled by some of the accusations that he tried to make the franchise “woke” by focusing on Teela. 2021-07-26, Lauren Sarner, “Kevin Smith on ‘Masters of the Universe’ and fan backlash”, in New York Post
   Rightwing Tory MPs should stop portraying concerns over the climate and nature as “woke”, and understand that voters are deeply concerned about the crisis, the Conservative minister Zac Goldsmith has warned. 2022-11-15, Fiona Harvey, quoting Zac Goldsmith, “‘Stupid’ to equate climate concerns with being woke, says Zac Goldsmith”, in The Guardian

noun

1. (slang, often derogatory) A person who is woke (holding progressive views or attitudes).
   Not to beat a dead horse, but it would appear that the wokes are in an abusive relationship with the speech policemen, given that some of their favored terms are being abruptly disallowed (like trigger warning or “preferred” pronouns). 2022-12-21, Judson Berger, “You Can’t Say That at Stanford”, in National Review
2. (uncountable, slang, derogatory) A progressive ideology, in particular with regards to social justice.
   The woke is the new religion of the left. 2022, Ron DeSantis, speech at CPAC 2022
3. (derogatory) the cultural Marxism conspiracy theory.

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

verb

1. simple past of wake
2. (now colloquial or dialectal) past participle of wake
   What time did you wake up, and what woke you so flamin' early on a Sunday morning? Something must have woke you. The alarm clock? 10 November 2007, Joy Dettman, One Sunday, Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia, page 184