OED & Jigaboo

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Tue Apr 10 15:12:42 UTC 2007


At 10:41 AM -0400 4/10/07, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:
>On Tue, Apr 10, 2007 at 09:30:32AM -0500, Scot LaFaive wrote:
>>  After hearing about Imus and being curious about "jigaboo," I looked it up
>>  in the OED: "A Black person, a Negro." This made me think; isn't "Negro" now
>>  considered somewhat offensive? I've heard that "Black" was once offensive
>>  while "Negro" wasn't, but is it reversed now? Personally, I find "Black" as
>>  acceptable and valid as "White," but I would never use "Negro." Though there
>>  still is the United Negro College Fund....
>
>The OED's recently revised entry for _Negro_ has a long note
>about the usage, including mention of the UNCF, and the
>comment "...the term _Negro_ (together with related terms such
>as _Negress_) has fallen from favour and is now typically
>regarded as out of date or even offensive in both British and
>American English."

"Out of date" is crucial for _Negro_ (and I think
there's a clear distinction vis-à-vis "Negress"
which--like "Jewess"--is out-of-date *and*
offensive).  In referring to, say, "the Negro
leagues", it's not necessarily intended or
received as offensive, although it is indeed
generally "[out] of favour".  Similarly, there's
"colored", surviving (hidden) in NAACP.

LH

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