peanut gallery
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.80 in modern English
19
Scrabble Score
13
Letters
2
Syllables
10
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
In the nineteenth century, the cheap seats at the back of a theatre or in the upper balcony.
noun
The upper balcony to which black patrons were restricted in racially segregated venues such as theatres.
Example Sentences
- "(both of which are dated and offensive)"
- "As early as the 1870s, most theaters allowed African Americans to sit in designated areas, while the dress and parquet circles were reserved for whites. A few theaters did not allow blacks at all. In the early 1920s, black leaders protested these “peanut galleries” on the grounds that African Americans paid the same ticket price. A boycott was organized that resulted not only in the closing of the peanut galleries but also closing of the theaters to blacks altogether. It was not until the public accommodations drive in the early 1960s that all theaters were opened to blacks. On May 14, 1963, the Louisville Board of Aldermen passed the public accommodations law that made discrimination in all public facilities illegal."
- "Enough already from the peanut gallery; if you think you can do a better job, go right ahead."
- ""No democratic government can function effectively on a stage in which every private conversation and classified document is second-guessed by a peanut gallery of unqualified loudmouths," said Danielle Pletka of the American Enterprise Institute."
Etymology
The phrase comes from nineteenth-century vaudeville theatres and refers to the cheap seats at the back of the theatre or in the upper balcony. It came to be applied to other venues as well, referring to the section where less-educated or less-seriously-interested patrons sat. The "peanut" comes from the popularity of that cheap snack in those sections, and the possibility that patrons might throw peanuts at the stage if displeased. In the mid-twentieth century, the Howdy Doody Show associated "peanut gallery" specifically with children.