Word.ws English Dictionary

Pinkerton syndrome

Syllables: Pink·er·ton syn·drome/ˈpɪŋkət(ə)n ˈsɪndɹəʊm/US/ˈpɪŋkɚt(ə)n ˈsɪndɹoʊm/

Pinkerton syndrome proper noun: the tendency of some Asians to regard Caucasians as superior or more desirable, especially where marriage or relationships are concerned.

Proper noun (1)

Pinkerton syndrome

  1. (Singapore, derogatory, ethnic, slur) The tendency of some Asians to regard Caucasians as superior or more desirable, especially where marriage or relationships are concerned.
    • When I’m with my white partner, I am a proponent of the ‘Pinkerton Syndrome’, a caricature not unlike the Other Asia’s mail order bride.1996, Westerly, volume 41, Crawley, Perth, W.A.: Western Australia Westerly Centre, the University of Western Australia, →ISSN, page 70
    • Like vampires, the ang moh crowd comes out at night, dressed in their best shirts and armed with plenty of tax-free Singapore dollars to woo those local darlings tragically struck down by the Pinkerton syndrome. Like the character in Madame Butterfly, they are somehow lured by the attraction of...2001, Neil Humphreys, Notes from an Even Smaller Island, Singapore: Times Books International, →ISBN, page 213

Proper noun (2)

Pinkerton syndrome

  1. (Scotland) Having esteem for older Scottish literature but not the modern Scottish tongue.
    • [page 57] The language of writers who are safely dead, and can be studied without fear of their exerting a subversive influence, bears the respectable label 'old Scots dialect'; the same tongue spoken by the living compatriots of these writers is 'bad grammar'. […] This attitude is of course not...1985, J. Derrick McClure, “The Pinkerton Syndrome”, in Chapman: Scotland's Quality Literary Magazine, Edinburgh: Chapman Magazine and Publications, OCLC 55590049, pages 2–8; reprinted in Scots and...
    • James Beattie personifies the Pinkerton syndrome perfectly, for, while publishing lists of Scotticisms to be avoided, he still found time to write the occasional verse in Scots himself.1986, Billy Kay, Scots: The Mither Tongue, Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, →ISBN

Origin of Pinkerton syndrome

In reference to the character Lieutenant B. F. Pinkerton in the opera Madama Butterfly (first performed in 1904) by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924).

Named after Scottish antiquarian, author and historian John Pinkerton (1758–1826), coined by J. Derrick McClure: see 1985 quotation.

Questions about Pinkerton syndrome

What does Pinkerton syndrome mean?
Pinkerton syndrome means the tendency of some Asians to regard Caucasians as superior or more desirable, especially where marriage or relationships are concerned.
What part of speech is Pinkerton syndrome?
Pinkerton syndrome is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Pinkerton syndrome?
Pinkerton syndrome is pronounced /ˈpɪŋkət(ə)n ˈsɪndɹəʊm/ (UK).

Words near Pinkerton syndrome in the dictionary

  1. Pinkerian
  2. Pinkerman
  3. Pinkermans
  4. pinkers
  5. Pinkerton
  6. Pinkerton syndrome
  7. Pinkertonian
  8. Pinkertonism
  9. Pinkertons
  10. pinkest
  11. Pinket

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Pinkerton syndrome (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “Pinkerton syndrome.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pinkerton_syndrome. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.