Status quo
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The state of things; the way things are, as opposed to the way they could be; the existing state of affairs.
"“As a black woman,” Jemisin tells me, “I have no particular interest in maintaining the status quo. Why would I? The status quo is harmful, the status quo is significantly racist and sexist and a whole bunch of other things that I think need to change. With epic fantasy there is a tendency for it to be quintessentially conservative, in that its job is to restore what is perceived to be out of whack.”"
- 2 the existing state of affairs wordnet
Example
More examples"“As a black woman,” Jemisin tells me, “I have no particular interest in maintaining the status quo. Why would I? The status quo is harmful, the status quo is significantly racist and sexist and a whole bunch of other things that I think need to change. With epic fantasy there is a tendency for it to be quintessentially conservative, in that its job is to restore what is perceived to be out of whack.”"
Etymology
From Latin status (“state”) (sometimes used in the ablative statū) + quō (“in which”), the ablative of quī (“which”).