Ethnic-based terms of contempt

[Mark Mandel]

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:
>> ...
>> Â 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? Â I'm wondering if=20
>>this is uniquely American. Â Probably not, but=20
>>are we more predisposed to it?
>>
>>Bill Palmer
>
> Many many. Â 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








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. Â Many are (for better or worse)=20
> archaic by now, but appear in Farmer & Henley's=20
> Victorian-era compendium. Â 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): Â potato
> Irishman's dinner: Â a fast
> Irish evidence: Â false witness
> Irish kiss: Â a slap in the face
> Irish promotion: Â a pay-cut
> Irish tan: Â sunburn
> Irish twins: Â two siblings who are not twins but=20
> are born less than a year apart
> Irish wedding: Â the emptying of a cesspool
>
> Dutch act (do the=8A): Â (commit) suicide
> Dutch auction: Â a sale at minimum prices, a reverse auction
> Dutch bargain: Â a bargain all on one side
> Dutch-clock: Â a bedpan; a wife
> Dutch concert/medley: Â a hubbub, whereat everyone=20
> sings and plays at the same time
> Dutch consolation: unconsoling consolation ("Thank heaven it is no worse")
> Dutch courage: Â pot-valiancy, courage due to intoxication
> Dutch feast: Â an entertainment where the host gets drunk before his guests
> Dutch fuck: Â the practice of lighting one cigarette from another
> Dutch milk: Â beer
> Dutch treat: Â an outing at which each party pays his/her own way
> Dutch uncle: Â an uncle of peculiar fierceness
> Dutch widow: Â a prostitute
> Dutch wife: Â 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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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org