Ethnic-based terms of contempt

[Alice Faber]

Wilson Gray wrote:
> I don't know that this was ever a term of contempt, but, in my younger
> days, people spoke of the "Texas fif(th)," a full quart of whiskey, as
> opposed to the usual 4/5 quart normally referred to as simply a
> "fif(th)."
>
> "Running on CP (colored people's) time" = "running late" was also
> quite common, in BE at least, back in the day.

Funny, when I was in college (early 70s), we used to refer to this as
"Jewish time".
>
> Back in the '80's, I used to hear "nigger box" and read "ghetto
> blaster" used for "boom box." More recently, there's "reggin (_nigger_
> spelled backward) weed" used for poor-quality mariguana.

I first heard the term "ghetto blaster" in the mid 80s, from a colleague
who was ordinarily the sort of person who would have gone out of her way
to avoid terms with potentially disparaging subtext.

--
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Alice Faber                                       faber at haskins.yale.edu
Haskins Laboratories                            tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
New Haven, CT 06511 USA                               fax (203) 865-8963

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