Karen

From Danish Karen, a vernacular form of Catherine that arose in medieval Denmark. The sense "middle-aged woman" comes from the popularity of the name among baby boomers and Gen-Xers. The derogatory usage was popularized in African-American Vernacular English via social media.[1]

• Caren, Caron, Caryn, Karin, Karyn

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkæɹən/

  • Audio (UK)

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• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkæɹən/, /ˈkɛɹən/

  • Audio (GA)

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• Rhymes: -æɹən, -ɛɹən, -ɛə(ɹ)n
• Homophone: caron
• Homophone: caring (weak vowel merger, G-dropping)
• Homophones: cairn, carn (some American accents)

Karen

1. A female given name from Ancient Greek.
   • 1878 Celia Thaxter, Drift-Weed, Houghton, Osgood,1878, page 28 ("Karen"):

     Left you a lover in that far land, / O Karen sad, that you pine so long! / Would I could unravel and understand / That sorrowful, sweet Norwegian song!

   • 1918 Cecily Ullman Sidgwick, Karen, W.Collins, 1918, page 12:

     I was not called Karen after Hans Andersen's dancing girl, but after a Danish friend of my mother's who married an Englishman and was my godmother. So much for our family affairs.

First taken up as a given name in the US, and popular in the English-speaking world from the 1950s to the 1970s. No longer in popular usage due to the now common derogatory use.

Karen (plural Karens)

1. (slang, originally African-American Vernacular, derogatory) A middle-aged white woman exhibiting a sense of entitlement or white privilege.
   • 2020 May 26, Sarah Maslin Nir, quoting Christian Cooper, “White Woman Is Fired After Calling Police on Black Man in Central Park”, in The New York Times‎:

     “I pull out the dog treats I carry for just for such intransigence,” he wrote. “That’s when I started video recording with my iPhone, and when her inner Karen fully emerged and took a dark turn,” he said, using the name that has become slang for an entitled white woman.

   • 2020 December 27, Julia Carrie Wong, “The year of Karen: how a meme changed the way Americans talked about racism”, in The Guardian‎:

     It was through that performance that Amy Cooper took on the mantle of an American archetype: the white woman who weaponizes her vulnerability to exact violence upon a Black man. […] In 2020, she is simply Karen.

2. (by extension, derogatory) Any person, especially female, exhibiting an exaggerated sense of entitlement.

   This Karen threatened to get me fired if I didn't give her a free meal.

   • 2021 Adam Korson as Phil Orley in "Ft. Ghost Child", episode five of SurrealEstate

     The organization wasn't meeting my needs, so I became a total Karen and asked to see the manager. He wasn't available so I took my business elsewhere.

• gammon
• Darren
• Miss Ann

From Parthian 𐭊𐭓𐭍𐭉‎ (krny /Kārēn/), from Old Iranian. The Armenian name is from Armenian Կարեն (Karen), from the same Parthian name.

• Garen (from Western Armenian)
• Kārēn (from Middle Iranian)
• Qarin, Qārin (from Arabic)
• Karin, Kārin (from New Iranian)

Karen

1. (historical) One of the seven great Parthian feudal families.
2. A transliteration of the Armenian male given name Կարեն (Karen).

• Karen-Pahlav, Karen-Pahlaw

• http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/karin

From Burmese ကရင် (ka.rang), of disputed origin.

• (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kəˈɹɛn/

  • Audio (UK)

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  • Audio (CA)

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• Rhymes: -ɛn

Karen (plural Karens or Karen)

1. A member of a diverse ethnic group originating in Myanmar and Thailand.

   Synonym: Kayin

   • 2021 February 4, Kirsti Marohn, “After Myanmar coup, Karen refugees in Minn. fear for homeland”, in Minnesota Public Radio News‎:

     According to the Karen Organization of Minnesota, there are more than 17,000 Karen people living in the state, along with smaller numbers of refugees from other ethnic groups in Myanmar, including Karenni and Mon.

Karen

1. A group of Sino-Tibetan languages spoken by people of the Karen ethnic group, also called Karenic.
2. Former name of Kayin (“state (administrative division) of Myanmar”).

• Black Karen
• Karenic
• Red Karen
• White Karen

• Ethnologue report on the Karen languages
• Nick Cheesman (2002) Seeing 'Karen' in the Union of Myanmar, Asian Ethnicity, 3:2, 202, DOI:10.1080/14631360220132736

• Krane, anker, knare, naker, ranke

From English Karen, from Danish.

Karen

1. a female given name from English [in turn from Danish, in turn from Ancient Greek]

For quotations using this term, see Citations:Karen.

A medieval variant of Katharina (“Catherine”).

Karen

1. a female given name

• → English: Karen
• → German: Karen
• → Icelandic: Karen
• → Norwegian: Karen

• Danskernes Navne, based on CPR data: 83 320 females with the given name Karen have been registered in Denmark between about 1890 (=the population alive in 1967) and January 2005, with the frequency peak in the 1910s. Accessed on 19 May 2011.

Karen

1. genitive singular of Kare (the given name)

• rekan

• Caren

Borrowed from Danish Karen.

• Audio

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Karen

1. a female given name, a much less popular variant of Karin

• Katharina

• IPA^(key): /ˈkʰaːrɛ(ː)n/

Karen f

1. a female given name

Sometimes also Karen in accusative and dative.

Karen

1. plural of Kar (“cart”)

Karen

1. a female given name of Danish origin