white-collar
Meaning
Relating to the work done or the people who work in offices and professional environments, rather than in factories, doing physical work.
Structure
Usage
He made the transition from blue-collar factory work to a white-collar management position.
The company announced significant layoffs, affecting both white-collar and blue-collar employees.
White-collar crime, such as fraud and embezzlement, is a major focus for the federal investigators.
Etymology
The term "white-collar" is a 20th-century American coinage that emerged alongside the growth of administrative and managerial work. It contrasts with "blue-collar," which refers to manual laborers who often wore durable, darker-colored clothing that could hide dirt and grime. The literal imagery of a clean, white shirt collar became a powerful metonym for clerical, administrative, and professional occupations that were performed in offices, free from physical labor and industrial soot. This compound perfectly encapsulates a social and economic distinction through the symbolic language of everyday attire.
Analysis
- white: From Old English hwīt, meaning the color white. In this compound, it metaphorically represents the clean, unstained shirts typically worn by office workers. - collar: From Old French coler, from Latin collāre ("neckband, necklace"), from collum ("neck"). In this compound, it refers to the shirt collar as a synecdoche for professional attire.