"Guinea" and the OED

[Jonathan Lighter]

Mario got it right that time.

By the end of the 19th C., "dago" was virtually synonymous with "foreigner
of Hispanic or southern European origin."

On occasion it could even include the French.

JL

On Mon, May 3, 2010 at 4:04 PM, 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: "Guinea" and the OED
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Somewhere - Mario Pei, again? - I read that  "dago" was likewise once
> applied to those regarded as being of Spanish origin and is supposedly
> derived from the name, _Diego_.
>
> -Wilson
>
> On Mon, May 3, 2010 at 1:05 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > Subject:      Re: "Guinea" and the OED
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > It has finally occurred to me to look in the OED.  It does have under
> > "Guinea Negro" two quotations using the stand-alone "Guinea": The
> > 1823 Cooper _Pioneers_, and from 1861 J. R. LOWELL Biglow P. 2nd Ser.
> > i. 183 'Tain't quite hendy to pass off one o' your six-foot
> > Guineas.  (If I remember correctly, we haven't found anything earlier
> > or much later.)
> >
> > But the OED does lack that sense as a definition, whereas it does
> > include "1.b. A derogatory term for an immigrant of Italian or
> > Spanish origin, or one of similar appearance."
> >
> > Joel
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
> --
> -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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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