birther

English

Alternative forms

  • Birther

Etymology

From birth + -er.

Pronunciation

Noun

birther (plural birthers)

  1. (rare) One who gives birth.
    • 1951, Erico Verissimo, Time and the Wind, volume 2, page 583:
      [] she couldn't be an "easy birther."
    • 1998, January 22, Paper Disputes Claims of Oldest Brit to Deliver, page C2:
      Liz Buttle, Britain's oldest birther, lied about not taking fertility drugs and didn't conceive her 2-month-old boy in the usual way as she insisted.
  2. (slang, derogatory, US politics) A believer in the conspiracy theory that Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States (2009-2017), was not born in that country, and therefore ineligible for presidency due to national law.
    • 2008, December 8, “Jay Bookman”, in Shut up about the birth certificate:
      I confess I do have some sympathy for the "birthers," though. As an outsider, it's hard to distinguish between the zany arguments that get official approval by the conservative establishment --- things like Bill Ayers, Michelle Obama's infamous "whitey" tape, the claim that Obama is a closet Marxist --- and those arguments that are considered beyond the pale.
    • 2009 August 7, Paul Krugman, “The Town Hall Mob”, in New York Times:
      Senator Dick Durbin has suggested that the birthers and the health care protesters are one and the same; we don’t know how many of the protesters are birthers, but it wouldn’t be surprising if it’s a substantial fraction.
    • 2010, September 29, “Mark Benjamin”, in What Islamophobia really threatens:
      Earlier this month, columnist and birther Frank Gaffney, Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., the ranking Republican on the Intelligence Committee, and others held a news conference on Capitol Hill to release a report on Muslim religious law entitled "Shariah: The Threat to America."

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