411 REFERENCE · Wiktionary
Colored People's Time
Reference material by Wiktionary contributors. This retains its source identity and is not 411 news reporting.
English
Etymology
From its facetious treatment as a time zone.
Pronunciation
en En-au-Colored People's Time.ogg AU
Noun
- Colored People's Time
en US dated _ pejorative _ slang sometimes reclaimed A notional system of time (or time zone) which others sometimes derogatorily ascribe to African Americans, and which they sometimes jocularly ascribe to themselves, to account for their supposed tendency to be tardy.
1967 January 27, Martin Luther King, Jr., quoted in Stephen B. Oates, Let the Trumpet Sound (1994), p. 338:
“Colored People's Time,” King said with a grin. “It always takes us longer to get where we're going.”
Synonyms
CP Time
CP time
CPT
Colored People Time
see also Thesaurus:tardy time
Further reading