English Language & Usage Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
Example sentence: Racism was a ____ in the Elizabethan Era.
I'm looking for a word/phrase that works with "breaking". I was considering "social norms" but it doesn't really mean what I want it to convey.
Even if it doesn't work with "breaking", I'd be happy to hear your suggestions anyway!
Perhaps not fully applicable, but zeitgeist should get a nod:
zeitgeist (noun, often capitalized) | zeit·geist \ˈtsīt-ˌgīst, ˈzīt-\
The general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era
Example:
The Zeitgeist of the Elizabethan Era included an acceptance of racism.
Sources:
Perhaps "widely accepted worldview"
A comprehensive world view or worldview is the fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society encompassing the entirety of the individual's or society's knowledge and point of view. A world view can include natural philosophy; fundamental, existential, and normative postulates; or themes, values, emotions, and ethics.[1] The term is a calque of the German word Weltanschauung [ˈvɛlt.ʔanˌʃaʊ.ʊŋ], composed of Welt ('world') and Anschauung ('view' or 'outlook').[2] The German word is also used in English.
(From Wikipedia)
In your example above, assuming you want to say that racism started to appear in the Elizabethan era, in itself very debatable, then 'emergent idea' would fit;
'Racism was an emergent idea in the Elizabethan era.'
Maybe you are trying to say that racism was first acknowledged as a thing in these time?
In which case 'Racism, as a concept, ....'
You might want to raise another question as to whether 'era' gets a capital 'E' in this usage ;-)
How about norm?
M-W:
norm: A principle of right action binding upon the members of a group and serving to guide, control, or regulate proper and acceptable behavior
Your example:
Racism was a norm in the Elizabethan Era.
ascendant: "moving upward" M-W
Racism was ascendant in the Elizabethan Era.
