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- Dictionarytipping point
noun
- 1. the point at which a series of small changes or incidents becomes significant enough to cause a larger, more important change.
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Morton Grodzins
- The phrase was first used in sociology by Morton Grodzins when he adopted the phrase from physics where it referred to the adding a small amount of weight to a balanced object until the additional weight caused the object to suddenly and completely topple, or tip. Grodzins studied integrating American neighborhoods in the early 1960s.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipping_point_(sociology)
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Malcolm Gladwell didn't invent the phrase 'tipping point'. Tipping point, which we define as “the critical point in a situation, process, or system beyond which a significant and often unstoppable effect or change takes place,” has achieved a certain degree of cultural ubiquity.
The phrase was first used in sociology by Morton Grodzins when he adopted the phrase from physics where it referred to the adding a small amount of weight to a balanced object until the additional weight caused the object to suddenly and completely topple, or tip. Grodzins studied integrating American neighborhoods in the early 1960s.
- Tipping Point
- Long Time, No See
- Mumbo Jumbo
- Sold Down The River
- No Can Do
- Indian Giver
- Cakewalk
This common phrase describes the critical point when a change that had been a possibility becomes inevitable. When it was popularized, according to Merriam-Webster, it was applied to one phenomenon in particular: white flight. In the 1950s, as white people abandoned urban areas for the suburbs in huge numbers, journalists began using the phrase tip...
The saying long time, no see can be traced back to the 19th century. In a Boston Sunday Globe article from 1894, the words are applied to a Native American speaker. The broken English phrase was also used to evoke white people’s stereotypical ideas of Native American speech in William F. Drannan’s 1899 book Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the...
Before it was synonymous with jargon or other confusing language, the phrase mumbo jumbo originated with religious ceremonies in West Africa. In the Mandinka language, the word Maamajomboo described a masked dancer who participated in ceremonies. Former Royal African Company clerk Francis Moore transcribed the name as mumbo jumbo in his 1738 book T...
Before the phrase sold down the rivermeant betrayal, it originated as a literal slave-trading practice. Enslaved people from more northerly regions were sold to cotton plantations in the Deep South via the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. For enslaved people, the threat of being “sold down the river” implied separation from family and a guaranteed life...
Similar to long time, no see, no can do originated as a jabat non-native English speakers. According to the OED, this example was likely directed at Chinese immigrants in the early 20th century. Today, many people who use the phrase as general slang for “I can’t do that” are unaware of its cruel origins.
Merriam-Webster defines an Indian giver as “a person who gives something to another and then takes it back.” One of the first appearances was in Thomas Hutchinson’s History of the Colony of Massachuset’s Bay in the mid 18th century. In a note, it says “An Indian gift is a proverbial expression, signifying a present for which an equivalent return is...
In the antebellum South, some enslaved Black Americans spent Sundays dressing up and performing dances in the spirit of mocking the white upper classes. The enslavers didn’t know they were the butt of the joke, and even encouraged these performances and rewarded the best dancers with cake, hence the name. Possibly because this was viewed as a leisu...
The tipping point, sometimes known as the moment of critical mass, is the critical point in a situation, process, or system when a significant and often unstoppable effect or change takes place.
Definition: The moment or factor that causes a situation to gain momentum quickly; the time when a significant or unstoppable change occurs. Origin of the Tipping Point. To best understand the definition of this idiom, it helps to think of the literal meaning, which is related to physics.
The meaning of TIPPING POINT is the critical point in a situation, process, or system beyond which a significant and often unstoppable effect or change takes place.
Jul 17, 2019 · Tipping originated in feudal Europe and was imported back to the United States by American travelers eager to seem sophisticated. The practice spread throughout the country after the Civil War as...
