Underhumans

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Individuals considered to be socially inferior or subjugated due to perceived lesser qualities or status; a term often used to describe groups regarded as beneath others in hierarchy or dignity; people viewed as being of lower moral or intellectual standing
2. Persons classified as belonging to a group deemed less civilized or less worthy according to certain social or ideological beliefs; those believed to occupy a subordinate position in a societal framework; a label used to indicate human beings regarded as inferior in some fundamental way
3. Groups or individuals thought to lack the qualities attributed to full human dignity or rights by dominant groups; people regarded as morally, intellectually, or socially degraded compared to others; a derogatory term expressing a hierarchical human divide based on perceived inadequacies

Etymology: "Underhuman" is a transparent compound: "under," meaning lower in rank or standing, joined to "human." The label places a person beneath full human standing, and its meaning comes from its construction rather than from any long shift in sense. The closest well-known parallel is the German "Untermensch," literally "sub-human," which Nazi ideology used for groups it considered racially inferior. English writers used words like "underhuman" and "subhuman" to render that idea, and the term is most often encountered in discussions of that ideology and of dehumanizing rhetoric more generally.