Fwd: Re: 1) yegg; 2) a few racist terms

[Jonathan Lighter]

Jerry Cohen asked me to forward the following:

Re: "yegg" -- Barry Popik has published an article on the term--first
in Comments on Etymology and then (reprinted) in one of the _Studies in
Slang_ volumes I've edited.

Re: "sheeney" -- The late Nathan Susskind (professor of German and
Jewish Studies, CUNY) wrote a very convincing article on the origin of this
term--printed first in Comments on Etymology and then in one of the
_Studies in Slang_ volumes I've edited.  The term has nothing to do with
Irish. Instead, it derived from the mocking phrase "a sheyne Yid"--used
by assimilated Jews in reference to the very non-assimilated Jews
(marked by their beards, clothing, etc.). The "sheyne" part of the phrase
was picked up by some non-Jews and applied to all Jews, assimilated or
not.

Re: "kike" -- My friend and colleague, Joseph Wallfield (now deceased)
was one of the greatest scholars I ever knew, although he published
only a few articles in his lifetime. One of those publications is on the
origin of the term "kike,"--which I think first appeared in Comments on
Etymology and then in one of the books I've edited. It may have been
_Studies in Slang_ but if not, then it was in one of the first two
volumes of _Etymology and Linguistic Principles_.  Wallfield derived it
(convincingly, as I remember) from a reduplicated form of the name Chai(m).

   When I return to Rolla, I can check the references






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