Ethnic-based terms of contempt

[Laurence Horn]

At 6:28 PM -0500 2/26/09, Mark Mandel wrote:
>On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 4:01 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>>  At 3:42 PM -0500 2/26/09, Bill Palmer wrote:
>>>  ...
>>>  ? In US English many are ethnic -based, such as=20
>>>"Indian giver", "Dutch courage", "Chinese=20
>>>fire-drill", "French leave", "Irish pennant"=20
>>>(this one may be unique to the US Navy).
>>>
>>>How many others are there? ? I'm wondering if=20
>>>this is uniquely American. ? Probably not, but=20
>>>are we more predisposed to it?
>>>
>>>Bill Palmer
>>
>>  Many many. ? I posted on this a few years back and=20
>>  suggested calling them "ethnonyms".
>
>Except that "ethnonym" has a well-established use as "A proper name by
>which a people or ethnic group is known; spec. one which it calls
>itself." (OED) For the latter subsense I prefer "aut(o)ethnonym".
>
>m a m
>

Oops.  Actually I didn't suggest calling them "ethnonyms".  What I
suggested calling them was "ironyms".
Here are some sample posts from 2003 and 2005:

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0302B&L=ADS-L&P=R6524&I=-3

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0504A&L=ADS-L&P=R9493&I=-3

The latter contains a reference to what Alan Dundes told me
folklorists called (what I call) ironyms, viz. "blason populaire".
Sounds pretty French for us types, though.

For all I know, someone else called something else "ironym" too, but
I don't know for a fact that they did.

LH

P.S.  Where did those =20's come from?

>
>
>
>
>
>
>Here's a=20
>>  small collection from a handout I used a couple=20
>>  of weeks ago, specializing in anti-Irish and=20
>>  anti-Dutch slurs. ? Many are (for better or worse)=20
>>  archaic by now, but appear in Farmer & Henley's=20
>>  Victorian-era compendium. ? This doesn't even get=20
>>  into verbs (jew (down), welsh,...).
>>
>>  And there are the nicely symmetrical ones:=20
>>  English/French pox, English/French leave, French=20
>>  letter vs. capote anglaise,...
>>
>>
>>  Welsh rabbit
>>
>>  Irish apricot (apple, lemon): ? potato
>>  Irishman's dinner: ? a fast
>>  Irish evidence: ? false witness
>>  Irish kiss: ? a slap in the face
>>  Irish promotion: ? a pay-cut
>>  Irish tan: ? sunburn
>>  Irish twins: ? two siblings who are not twins but=20
>>  are born less than a year apart
>>  Irish wedding: ? the emptying of a cesspool
>>
>>  Dutch act (do the=8A): ? (commit) suicide
>>  Dutch auction: ? a sale at minimum prices, a reverse auction
>>  Dutch bargain: ? a bargain all on one side
>>  Dutch-clock: ? a bedpan; a wife
>>  Dutch concert/medley: ? a hubbub, whereat everyone=20
>>  sings and plays at the same time
>>  Dutch consolation: unconsoling consolation ("Thank heaven it is no worse")
>>  Dutch courage: ? pot-valiancy, courage due to intoxication
>>  Dutch feast: ? an entertainment where the host gets drunk before his guests
>>  Dutch fuck: ? the practice of lighting one cigarette from another
>>  Dutch milk: ? beer
>>  Dutch treat: ? an outing at which each party pays his/her own way
>>  Dutch uncle: ? an uncle of peculiar fierceness
>>  Dutch widow: ? a prostitute
>>  Dutch wife: ? a bolster (on a bed)
>>
>>  Scotch coffee 'hot water flavored with burnt biscuit'
>>  Scotch mist 'a soaking rain'
>>  Scotch warming-pan 'a chambermaid'
>>  Scotch woodcock 'scrambled eggs on toast with anchovies or anchovy paste'
>>
>>  Alabama wool 'cotton'
>>  Alaska turkey 'salmon'
>>  Albany beef ? 'sturgeon'
>>  Jewish penicillin 'chicken soup'
>>
>>  Bronx cheer
>>  Winnipeg handshake
>>  Michigan bankroll
>>  etc.
>>
>>  (also discussed in various threads; check archives for more details)
>>
>>  LH
>>
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>>
>
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