Ethnic-based terms of contempt

[Scot LaFaive]

>Back in the '80's, I used to hear "nigger box" and read "ghetto blaster"
used for "boom box."

I recently worked with someone who unfortunately still calls it a "nigger
box."

>More recently, there's "reggin (_nigger_spelled backward) weed" used for
poor-quality mariguana.

And of course "downtown brown." Not sure if any relation, but the academic
site of Urbandictionary says it especially refers to weed "bought in the
ghetto."

Scot



On 2/26/09, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Ethnic-based terms of contempt
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> -Wilson
> –––
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -----
> -Mark Twain
>
>
>
> On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 4:01 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster: Â  Â  Â  Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> > Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: Ethnic-based terms of contempt
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > At 3:42 PM -0500 2/26/09, Bill Palmer wrote:
> >>The recent discussion of "shade-tree mechanic",=20
> >>which conveys, in some usages, contempt for the=20
> >>referent, naturally leads to the subject of=20
> >>other such expressions.
> >>
> >> 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". Â 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
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org