to other

I learned a new verb today: to other, meaning to treat someone else as “other,” as different. The person I learned it from had used it once before. She had learned it from a graduate student. Sample usage: “They were othering him and I didn’t like it.” I like to other because there’s room for a milder term than demonize.

Definition of othering, which isn’t in Merriam-Webster’s Online.

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