performative

English

Etymology

Etymology tree
English perform
Proto-Indo-European *-h₂
Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂
Proto-Indo-European *-tós
Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂tos
Proto-Italic *-ātos
Latin -ātuslbor.
English -ate
Proto-Indo-European *-wós
Proto-Indo-European *-iHwósder.
Latin -īvus
Old French -ifbor.
Middle English -yf
English -ive
English -ative
English performative

    From perform + -ative.

    Adjective

    performative (comparative more performative, superlative most performative)

    1. (philosophy, linguistics) Enacting or performing (an act) by articulating it.
      Saying "I do" as part of a wedding ceremony is performative, enacting a marriage.
      • 1975 April 15, J. L. Austin, How to Do Things with Words: Second Edition, Harvard University Press, →ISBN:
        Thus in the example: 'By saying “I do” I was marrying her', the performative 'I do' is a means to the end of marriage. Here 'saying' is used in the sense in which it takes inverted commas and is using words or language, a phatic and not […]
    2. Relating to or characterized by (artistic) performance.
      • 2022, Sophie Thomas, Maureen McCue, Edinburgh Companion to Romanticism and the Arts,
        Even music lectures could best be described as audiovisual, since their 'musical illustrations' involved performances with instruments (Kurzer 2000, 136). William Crotch's popular lecture courses in Oxford and at London's Royal, Surrey and London Institutions were deemed a 'happy combination of instruction and entertainment', presumably because of his performative flair (Kurzer 2000, 136). Crotch relates that when the Royal Institution Managers refused his request for an orchestra before his first, 1805 series because 'they wished me to perform my examples myself', he secured a piano and harpsichord instead (Irving 2018, 15n.).
    3. Insincere, inauthentic or disingenuous; done solely or largely as a performance, to produce an impression or enhance one's reputation.
      Synonyms: illocutionary, performatory, workly
      We were beginning to suspect that her ethical qualms were sometimes performative, as the urgent need for fairness and justice seemed to apply to some people but not to others.
      • 2002, Anthony Kubiak, Agitated States: Performance in the American Theater of Cruelty, →ISBN, page 4:
        Although the seeming copycat nature of the plots in Port Huran and Conyers was terrifying because of their repetitive, performative, even texted nature—their seeming theatricality—more harrowing was the threat that, like theater, the performance would settle quickly into repetition compulsions in schools across the nation.
      • 2013, Martha McCaughey, Michael D. Ayers, Cyberactivism: Online Activism in Theory and Practice, page 200:
        With the danger of science becoming purely “performative” (Lyotard 1984), not seeking any pretense of “truth” but simply performing a service for those in charge while still occupying its decision-making role in a technocratically dominated political sphere […]
      • 2017, Angela Nagle, Kill All Normies, Zero Books, →ISBN, Introduction:
        The Harambe meme soon became the perfect parody of the sentimentality and absurd priorities of Western liberal performative politics and the online mass hysteria that often characterized it.
      • 2022 January 8, “The rise of performative work”, in The Economist‎[1], London: The Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 3 February 2022:
        The reality of remote working has turned out to be different. Days have become longer and employees are demonstratively visible. Work has become more performative.
      • 2024 February 9, Chloe Mac Donnell, “‘Reading is so sexy’: gen Z turns to physical books and libraries”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎[2], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 23 October 2026:
        After the photos of Jenner and Elordi were published there was a stream of online discourse stating we had entered an era of performative reading.
      • 2026 February 13, Emma Loffhagen, “‘His favourite book was by Jordan Peterson, which was a massive ick’: how books perform on dating apps”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎[3], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 18 October 2026:
        That tension – between actual taste and strategic signalling – maps on to the “performative men” discourse: the suspicion that some men curate feminist politics or literary taste as a dating strategy rather than them being their authentically held beliefs and preferences.
      • 2026 June 28, David Smith, “Will the Mamdani effect make 2028 the year of the leftwing president?”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎[4], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 23 October 2026:
        “To me, centrists can go fuck themselves,” said Léa Zimmerman, 34. “They’re fucking useless, they don’t stand for anything, and if they do stand on something, it’s pathetic. I’m done with pathetic, performative people.”

    Derived terms

    Translations

    Noun

    Examples (linguistics)
    • “I name this boat ‘Alfred’.”

    performative (plural performatives)

    1. A performative utterance.
      • 2011, Phyllis Kaburise, Speech Act Theory and Communication: A Univen Study, page 77:
        The distinction between constatives and performatives is one of the distinctions that he starts questioning.

    Further reading

    Anagrams

    French

    Adjective

    performative

    1. feminine singular of performatif

    German

    Pronunciation

    • Audio (Germany (Berlin)):(file)

    Adjective

    performative

    1. inflection of performativ:
      1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
      2. strong nominative/accusative plural
      3. weak nominative all-gender singular
      4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

    Italian

    Adjective

    performative

    1. feminine plural of performativo
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