You're an ethnic slur!

[Ben Zimmer]

On Tue, Apr 10, 2012 at 4:06 PM, Neal Whitman wrote:
>
> Probably because of the "slur" thread that began here last month (see link
> at bottom), I got to thinking about a phrasing I heard on NPR this morning:
> "called him an ethnic slur." I pictured someone telling someone else, "You
> ethnic slur!" or "You're an ethnic slur, you know that?" If it had been
> written, as "called him a[n ethnic slur]," that wouldn't be so strange, but
> in spoken English, it reminds me of actually saying things like "expletive
> deleted" or "beeeeep" in avoidance of taboo language.

Surely influenced by "to call (someone) a name" or "to call (someone) names."
OED only has the latter under _call_:

---
17 c. _to call names_ : to apply opprobrious names or epithets to (a person).
(Cf. 12.)
[1597   Shakespeare Richard III i. iii. 234   That thou hadst cald me all these
bitter names.]
1697   W. Dampier New Voy. around World v. 117   They‥content themselves
with standing aloof, threatning and calling names.
1712   R. Steele Spectator No. 274. ⁋1   Calling Names does no Good.
1854   H. Miller Schools & Schoolmasters (1860) xxii. 233/2   He replied to my
jokes by calling names.
1884   Times (Weekly ed.) 5 Sept. 3/1   They were not in the habit of calling
one another names.
---

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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