Are we in for a summer of protest? Bubbles of anti-lockdown gatherings in the spring were followed, after the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, by a wave of demonstrations across the US and elsewhere.
The sense of complaint in “protest”, though, is relatively modern. Those who quote Shakespeare’s “The lady doth protest too much” to describe the vehement denial of an accusation are being anachronistic: Hamlet’s mother is criticising the affected exaggeration of the acting.
From the Latin “protestare”, to “protest” was originally to make a formal declaration or demand, particularly in legal and financial matters, and thence to insist emphatically on something. The negative sense arose from the early use (from the 16th century) of the phrase “to protest against”, ie to speak strongly in contradiction of some other claim. In time “against” became optional, and the noun “a protest” became an act of dissent.
In modern politics, the use of “protest” (noun and verb) is often contested. (It conjugates thus: I am disagreeing; you are protesting; they are rioting.) But its history should remind us that protesters are not necessarily mere complainers; they might instead be making a solemn declaration whose time has finally come.
• Steven Poole’s A Word for Every Day of the Year is published by Quercus.
