Pied noir: an American connection? or maybe not...

[Jim Parish]

Laurence Horn wrote:
> At 10:59 AM -0500 1/18/10, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >Is "reclamation" a very recent phenomenon? Offhand, I can't think of
> >anything before "black" (ca1969).
> >
> >
> >JL
>
> I think in political and religious contexts it's
> been around for awhile, for example for some of
> those -ers we were talking about (Quaker, Shaker)
> and their relatives.  And didn't "Whig" and
> "Tory" start out as insults? I'm not sure this is
> the same phenomenon, but it's close.

More recent than these examples, but my understanding is that "suffragette"
began as an insult (they preferred to be called "suffragists").

Jim Parish

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