token
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈtəʊkən/
enpr: tōk′ən
ipa: /ˈtoʊkən/
rhymes: -əʊkən
Forms: form: more token
form: most token
Etymology: From Middle English token, taken, from Old English tācn (“sign, symbol”), from Proto-West Germanic *taikn, from Proto-Germanic *taikną (“indicator, symbol, sign”), from Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- (“to show, instruct, teach”) with Germanic *k rather than *h by Kluge's law. Cognate with Scots takin, taiken (“token, sign”), Saterland Frisian Teken (“sign, symbol”), West Frisian teken (“sign, mark, symbol”), Dutch teken (“sign, indication, symbol”), German Low German Teken (“sign, symbol”), German Zeichen (“sign, token”), Danish tegn (“sign, token, character”), Swedish tecken (“sign, indication”), Faroese tekn, tekin (“mark, sign, signal”), Icelandic teikn (“sign, omen”), Icelandic tákn (“symbol”).
The verb is from Middle English toknen, from Old English tācnian.
Senses: glosses: Done as an indication or a pledge.
examples: text: a token gesture
text: He made a token tap on the brake pedal at the stop sign.
text: If the as had been reduced to a token in 240 BC, it was now a little more token than before.
ref: 1927, Arthur Robert Burns, Money and Monetary Policy in Early Times, page 393:
text: It sounds very token, another damp squib which will probably end up benefiting more bureaucrats than artists or scientists.
ref: 1999 June 30, Fiachra Gibbons, quoting John Calder, “Arts and science ‘damp squib’”, in The Guardian:
text: There are still many churches where the participation of women is token.
ref: 2000, Cheris Kramarae, Dale Spender, Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women, page 176:
glosses: Perfunctory or merely symbolic; done or existing for appearance's sake, or to minimally comply with a requirement.
examples: text: He was hired as the company's token black person.
text: The television show was primarily directed toward a black audience, but it did have a few token white people as performers.
text: However, it should be noted that wherever ministers are opposed to mixed churches, the racial admixture is token.
ref: 1958, Social Problems - Volume 6, page 158:
text: It disputed the NAACP's argument that its minority employment was token, noting that it employed minorities in six years of its seven-year term and hired Blacks as station manager and news director among its five minority hires for full-time positions.
ref: 1993, United States. Federal Communications Commission, FCC Record, page 7560:
text: Even appointees who knew their positions were token would coolly take from the situation whatever benefits they could get.
ref: 1995, Christine N. Qunta, Who's Afraid of Affirmative Action, page 54:
text: Having been in a university environment that was incredibly hostile to women, coming here seems like heaven. There are a lot of women senior faculty. In the university, there was only one in the department, and she was very token.
ref: 1996, William G. Tierney, Estela Mara Bensimon, Promotion and Tenure: Community and Socialization in Academe, page 96:
text: In the rehabilitation (or any other) work-settings, minority counselors in double token status (e.g., female, black ) or triple token status ( female, black, with a disability) may experience more intense token effects of have mixed outcomes.
ref: 2000, Journal of Applied Rehabilitation Counseling - Volume 31, page 51:
text: This perspective thus implies a corollary that addresses the most highly imbalanced gender compositions and that we label as token. […] Therefore, "token" women's participation and authority will be lower than "token" men's.
ref: 2014, Christopher F. Karpowitz, Tali Mendelberg, The Silent Sex: Gender, Deliberation, and Institutions, page 117:
glosses: Included in minimal numbers in order to create an impression or illusion of diversity, especially ethnic or gender diversity.
raw_tags: of people