Ethnic-based terms of contempt

[Laurence Horn]

At 3:42 PM -0500 2/26/09, Bill Palmer wrote:
>The recent discussion of "shade-tree mechanic", 
>which conveys, in some usages, contempt for the 
>referent, naturally leads to the subject of 
>other such expressions.
>
>  In US English many are ethnic -based, such as 
>"Indian giver", "Dutch courage", "Chinese 
>fire-drill", "French leave", "Irish pennant" 
>(this one may be unique to the US Navy).
>
>How many others are there?  I'm wondering if 
>this is uniquely American.  Probably not, but 
>are we more predisposed to it?
>
>Bill Palmer

Many many.  I posted on this a few years back and 
suggested calling them "ethnonyms".  Here's a 
small collection from a handout I used a couple 
of weeks ago, specializing in anti-Irish and 
anti-Dutch slurs.  Many are (for better or worse) 
archaic by now, but appear in Farmer & Henley's 
Victorian-era compendium.  This doesn't even get 
into verbs (jew (down), welsh,...).

And there are the nicely symmetrical ones: 
English/French pox, English/French leave, French 
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 
are born less than a year apart
Irish wedding:  the emptying of a cesspool

Dutch act (do theŠ):  (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 
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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