Meaning
Powerful social or political forces of transformation, usually unstoppable and beyond any government's control. Typically said to be blowing through an institution, industry or country, often to argue that resisting them is futile. Slightly rhetorical and journalistic, associated with political commentary; it nearly always implies that change is inevitable. Regional use: General English.
Origin
The phrase became world-famous through Harold Macmillan's 'wind of change' address to the South African Parliament in Cape Town on 3 February 1960, in which the British prime minister said 'the wind of change is blowing through this continent' and accepted that African decolonisation was a political fact. He had already used the wording in Accra, Ghana, on 10 January 1960, where it drew little attention, and the Cape Town speech was drafted by his adviser David Hunt. Macmillan did not coin the metaphor: William Safire's New Political Dictionary traces a chain of earlier uses, including Aeschylus (The Libation-Bearers, 458 BC, 'Zeus at last may cause our ill winds to change'), John Gay's 'Change, as ye list, ye winds', Stanley Baldwin in 1934 ('There is a wind of nationalism and freedom blowing around the world') and Nehru in 1947 ('Strong winds are blowing all over Asia'). Macmillan's original used the singular 'wind of change'; the plural became standard, and he adopted it as the title of his 1966 memoirs.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- a wind of change
- the wind of change is blowing
- the winds of change are blowing
- wind of change
Usage Examples
- The chief executive told shareholders that the winds of change sweeping the motor industry would spare no manufacturer.
- After decades of one-party rule, the winds of change finally reached the region's quietest republics.
- You can fight the winds of change or you can set your sails, the union leader told the delegates.