Counterculture

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A movement rejecting mainstream societal values and institutions through alternative lifestyles, art, and philosophy
2. A cultural rebellion against conventional norms expressed through nonconforming artistic, musical, and social practices
3. A movement rejecting mainstream social norms and institutions through alternative lifestyles, values, and artistic expression
4. A cultural phenomenon opposing established conventions by promoting unconventional beliefs, aesthetics, and modes of living

Etymology: The word is a compound of "counter-" and "culture," and the second half carries most of the history. "Culture" came into English from Middle French, which took it from Latin "cultura," meaning tilling or cultivation of the soil. Its root, "colere," meant to inhabit, tend or cultivate, and the sense of cultivating the mind or manners only developed later, so a word built on the idea of working the land gradually came to describe refinement of the person. The prefix "counter-" comes from Latin "contra," "against," which passed through Old French and Anglo-Norman into Middle English. English speakers have long used it to mean opposition or reversal, as in "counteract" and "counterfeit." Joined together, the two parts describe a culture set against the dominant one. The modern sense, a movement rejecting mainstream norms through alternative lifestyles, values and art, is a twentieth-century development built on these older pieces rather than something the ancient words anticipated.

Synonyms: subculture, alternative culture, counter-movement