White Hunter - The Phrase Itself

The Phrase Itself

The phrase "great white hunter" probably has its origins in these popular depictions of safari adventures. Peter Capstick, a white hunter and an author of books on the subject, suggested that the word "great" may have been added by American popular culture. It was not a term employed or embraced by the hunters themselves. Its meaning, like many labels from the colonial era, is now shaded with parody or derision: it came to symbolize a perceived arrogance of western colonial powers toward the less developed parts of the world they controlled before the dismemberment of their empires after World War II.