# Karen
## English
### Etymology 1

From Danish Karen, a vernacular form of Catherine that arose in medieval Denmark. The sense "middle-aged woman" comes from the popularity of the name among baby boomers and Gen-Xers. The derogatory usage was popularized via African-American Vernacular English.

#### Alternative forms

* Caren, Caron, Caryn, Karin, Karyn

#### Pronunciation

* (UK) IPA: /ˈkæɹən/
** Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (US) IPA: /ˈkæɹən/, /ˈkɛɹən/
** Audio (General American):(file)
* Rhymes: -æɹən, -ɛɹən, -ɛə(ɹ)n
* Homophone: caron
* Homophone: caring (weak vowel merger, g-dropping)
* Homophones: cairn, carn (some American accents)

#### Proper noun

Karen
* A female given name from Ancient Greek.
** 1878 Celia Thaxter, Drift-Weed, Houghton, Osgood,1878, page 28 ("Karen"):
    Left you a lover in that far land, / O Karen sad, that you pine so long! / Would I could unravel and understand / That sorrowful, sweet Norwegian song!
** 1918 Cecily Ullman Sidgwick, Karen, W.Collins, 1918, page 12:
    I was not called Karen after Hans Andersen's dancing girl, but after a Danish friend of my mother's who married an Englishman and was my godmother. So much for our family affairs.

##### Usage notes

* First taken up as a given name in the US, and popular in the English-speaking world from the 1950s to the 1970s.

##### Translations
#### Noun

Karen (plural Karens)
* (slang, derogatory) A middle-aged white woman exhibiting a sense of entitlement or white privilege.
    Coordinate term: Darren
** 2020 May 26, Sarah Maslin Nir, quoting Christian Cooper, “White Woman Is Fired After Calling Police on Black Man in Central Park”, in The New York Times‎:“I pull out the dog treats I carry for just for such intransigence,” he wrote. “That’s when I started video recording with my iPhone, and when her inner Karen fully emerged and took a dark turn,” he said, using the name that has become slang for an entitled white woman.
** 2020 December 27, Julia Carrie Wong, “The year of Karen: how a meme changed the way Americans talked about racism”, in The Guardian‎:It was through that performance that Amy Cooper took on the mantle of an American archetype: the white woman who weaponizes her vulnerability to exact violence upon a Black man. […] In 2020, she is simply Karen.
** 2024 February 2, Alaina Demopoulos, quoting Jeremy, “‘I’m annoying, to some degree’: New York’s dog owners debate Chloë Sevigny’s anti-pup take”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:“If I lived Chloe’s life, where she was walking around with other wealthy people basically being upper-class Karens having a fit when their dogs aren’t allowed at yoga, then I might understand,” he said.
* (by extension, derogatory) Any person, especially female, exhibiting an exaggerated sense of entitlement.
    This Karen threatened to get me fired if I didn't give her a free meal.
** 2021 Adam Korson as Phil Orley in "Ft. Ghost Child", episode five of SurrealEstate
    The organization wasn't meeting my needs, so I became a total Karen and asked to see the manager. He wasn't available so I took my business elsewhere.

##### Derived terms

* Karen haircut
* Karenhood
* Karenicity
* Karenism
* Qaren (a female QAnon supporter)
* Space Karen (pejorative nickname for Elon Musk)

##### Translations
#### See also

* gammon
* Miss Ann

#### References

* ↑ Nagesh, Ashitha (2020 July 31) “What exactly is a 'Karen' and where did the meme come from?”, in BBC News‎, BBC, retrieved 2020-07-30: “Although its exact origins are uncertain, the meme became popular a few years ago as a way for people of colour, particularly black Americans, to satirise the class-based and racially charged hostility they often face.”

### Etymology 2

From Parthian 𐭊𐭓𐭍𐭉 (krny /⁠Kārēn⁠/), from Old Iranian. The Armenian name is from Armenian Կարեն (Karen), from the same Parthian name.

#### Alternative forms

* Garen (from Western Armenian)
* Kārēn (from Middle Iranian)
* Qarin, Qārin (from Arabic)
* Karin, Kārin (from New Iranian)

#### Proper noun

Karen
* (historical) One of the seven great Parthian feudal families.
* A transliteration of the Armenian male given name Կարեն (Karen).

##### Synonyms

* Karen-Pahlav, Karen-Pahlaw

##### Translations
#### References

* http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/karin

### Etymology 3

From Burmese ကရင် (ka.rang), of disputed origin.

#### Pronunciation

* (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA: /kəˈɹɛn/
** Audio (Southern England):(file)
** Audio (Canada):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɛn

#### Noun

Karen (plural Karens or Karen)
* A member of a diverse ethnic group originating in Myanmar and Thailand.
    Synonym: Kayin
** 1968, Daniel George Edward Hall, “Burma”, in Encyclopedia Britannica‎, volume 4, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 442, column 2:U Nu's government was Socialist with a program of nationalization. But it had to fight for survival against almost universal disorder complicated by a Communist rebellion, a Karen rising, which was far more serious, and, in 1950, the arrival from Yünnan of General Li Mi's Kuomintang division after its rout by the Chinese Communists.
** 2011, Terry Miller, Sean Williams, The Garland Handbook of Southeast Asian Music, page 303:There are more than a hundred such groups, including the Karen of Thailand and Burma; the Kachin in Burma; the Akha, the Lahu, and the Lisu in Thailand; the Hmong, the Kmhmu, and the Yao in Laos; and the Nùng and the Lati in Vietnam.

##### Translations
#### Proper noun

Karen
* A group of Sino-Tibetan languages spoken by people of the Karen ethnic group, also called Karenic.
* Former name of Kayin (“state (administrative division) of Myanmar”).

##### Translations
#### Derived terms

* Black Karen
* Karenic
* Red Karen
* S'gaw Karen
* White Karen

#### References

* Ethnologue report on the Karen languages
* Nick Cheesman (2002) Seeing 'Karen' in the Union of Myanmar, Asian Ethnicity, 3:2, 202, DOI:10.1080/14631360220132736

### Anagrams

* naker, knare, ranke, nerka, Krane, anker

## Cebuano
### Etymology

From English Karen, from Danish.

### Proper noun

Karen
* a female given name from English [in turn from Danish, in turn from Ancient Greek]

#### Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:Karen.

## Danish
### Etymology

A medieval variant of Katharina (“Catherine”).

### Proper noun

Karen
* a female given name

#### Descendants

* → English: Karen
* → German: Karen
* → Icelandic: Karen
* → Norwegian: Karen

### References

* Danskernes Navne, based on CPR data: 83 320 females with the given name Karen have been registered in Denmark between about 1890 (=the population alive in 1967) and January 2005, with the frequency peak in the 1910s. Accessed on 19 May 2011.

## Finnish
### Proper noun

Karen
* genitive singular of Kare (the given name)

### Anagrams

* rekan

## German
### Alternative forms

* Caren

### Etymology

Borrowed from Danish Karen.

### Pronunciation

* Audio:(file)

### Proper noun

Karen
* a female given name, a much less popular variant of Karin

#### Related terms

* Katharina

## Icelandic
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈkʰaːrɛ(ː)n/

### Proper noun

Karen f (proper noun, genitive singular Karenar)
* a female given name

#### Declension

Sometimes also Karen in accusative and dative.

## Luxembourgish
### Noun

Karen
* plural of Kar (“cart”)

## Norwegian
### Proper noun

Karen
* a female given name of Danish origin