Meaning
A man sitting with his knees spread wide apart, especially on public transport, so that he occupies more than one seat. Informal and usually a criticism of inconsiderate behaviour in shared space rather than a neutral description; the tone is satirical and the word is tied to debates about gender and public space. Informal, satirical-critical coinage; usually marks disapproval rather than description. Regional use: General English; strongest in US and UK media and online.
Origin
The online debate began with an anti-manspreading campaign on Tumblr in 2013; the word itself is documented from 2014, when discussion of men taking up shared space spread across social media. In late 2014 New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority ran a poster campaign against taking up multiple seats, with slogans such as Dude, stop the spread please, and Seattle's Sound Transit ran a similar drive; heavy worldwide media coverage of the campaigns cemented the term. Oxford Dictionaries' online edition added manspreading in August 2015 among roughly 1,000 new words. Later milestones include Lake Superior State University putting it on its 2016 banished-words list and Madrid's transit authority banning occupying more than one seat from 2017. Whether any use predates the 2013 Tumblr debate is unverified; the documented coinage window is 2013 to 2014.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- manspread
- manspreader
Usage Examples
- The carriage was full, and one commuter's manspreading claimed the last free seat.
- Posters asking riders to stop manspreading went up across the subway that winter.
- She asked, politely but firmly, whether his manspreading could make room for her bag.