--- title: Hillary Clinton Vagenda Meme: What is Manocide description: The latest meme about Hillary Clinton and her "vagenda" raises a lot of linguistic questions. canonical: https://time.com/4469139/hillary-clinton-vagenda/ author: Nate Hopper article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-26T21:23:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:03:15.292Z og:title: What Exactly Is 'Manocide,' Anyway? og:description: The truth about the 'vagenda' sign is shocking og:url: https://time.com/4469139/hillary-clinton-vagenda/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbafda20c55042f32/6988a3d70b72e392ef6eacae/hillary-clinton-vagenda-manocide-meaning.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Senator Hillary Clinton Tours Hi-Bred Corn Facility in Iowa og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What Exactly Is 'Manocide,' Anyway? twitter:description: The truth about the 'vagenda' sign is shocking twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbafda20c55042f32/6988a3d70b72e392ef6eacae/hillary-clinton-vagenda-manocide-meaning.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why Does This Person Think Hillary Clinton Wants to Kill a Stone Corn Grinder?  by [Nate Hopper](https://time.com/author/nate-hopper/)  ## Nate Hopper Aug 26, 2016 9:23 PM UTC  Senator Hillary Clinton listens as research scientist Laura Higgins explains how Pioneer Hi-Bred technology is used to protect corn plants from rootworm damage during a greenhouse tour at the Pioneer Hi-Bred facility in Johnston, Iowa, on 5 March 2007. Senator Hillary Clinton listens as research scientist Laura Higgins explains how Pioneer Hi-Bred technology is used to protect corn plants from rootworm damage during a greenhouse tour at the Pioneer Hi-Bred facility in Johnston, Iowa, on 5 March 2007.Mark Hirsch—WireImage/Getty Images  by [Nate Hopper](https://time.com/author/nate-hopper/)  ## Nate Hopper Aug 26, 2016 9:23 PM UTC At Gulf of Maine Gunsmithing, someone [lettered on its sign](http://www.vocativ.com/353841/vagenda-of-manocide-hillary-clinton/): “BEWARE THE BEAST HILDABEAST CLINTON AND ITS VAGENDA OF MANOCIDE.” Yes, it happened a couple years ago, but the Internet cares not. From a linguistically objective standpoint, this statement makes sense. _Beware_ is a common verb, just as _beast_ is a common noun. _Hildabeast_ is clarified by Clinton as essentially, _Hillary the beast_. _Vagenda_ is a portmanteau of _vagina_ and _agenda_; it clearly denotes an agenda possessed by one possessing a vagina. And while _its_ is a strangely genderless pronoun for something with a vagenda, most readers still understand. But then we get to _manocide_. The Latin suffix –_cide_ likely refers to the act of killing. From there, it gets murky—if only for a time. > [](https://twitter.com/OhWettestFarm/status/768476528598331392) At first, one might think the sign-letterer mingled Spanish, the _\-cide_ referring to _mano_, or _hand_. This would seem to mean that the signist feared Hillary Clinton’s vagenda would involve taking away the hands of people, if she gained power. One could conclude that, given the name of the store, the hand the signer would fear losing most would be their gun hand. But switching to Spanish in Maine, a state that [according to the Census Bureau](http://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/PST045215/23) as of July 1, 2015, was 1.6% percent “Hispanic or Latino” seems unlikely. Then one discovers: _Mano_ is an English word, too. [Merriam-Webster defines it](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mano) as: “a stone used as the upper millstone for grinding foods (\[such\] as corn) by hand in a metate,” which is the lower millstone. Manocide, then, must refer to the killing of stones used as the upper millstone for grinding foods (such as corn) by hand in a metate. Motto did not know that this was an issue—especially in a state that [the National Corn Growers Association’s 2016 report](http://www.ncga.com/upload/files/documents/pdf/publications/WOC-2016.pdf) says has just 16,000 acres of corn planted (the fourth-lowest in the United States). But given that clarification, Motto would like to make a statement regarding the sign: Stones used as the upper millstone for grinding foods (such as corn) by hand in a metate do not deserve to die. 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