A slow-spreading(?) slur: "_anti_-slant[-]eye"
Wilson Gray
hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Thu Mar 8 21:08:46 UTC 2012
On Thu, Mar 8, 2012 at 1:36 PM, Ronald Butters <ronbutters at aol.com> wrote:
> Far from being a SLOW-spreading slur, SLANT appears to be a term that
> formerly was used as a not-very-widspead ethnic/racial epithet, then
> ameliorated owing to its very descriptive genericness (e.g., in medical
> terminology)--and today is in widespread use as a positive term of
> self-reference among many Americans who are genetically disposed to have
> slanted eyes.
If I may quote myself, edited for clarity:
"SLANT-EYE IS AS OLD AS DIRT.
But, citable instances of
"ANTI-slant-eye"
are surprisingly rare and recent and I haven't *heard* it anywhere,
except for that one time.
On Thu, Mar 8, 2012 at 1:36 PM, Ronald Butters <ronbutters at aol.com> wrote:
> Americans who are genetically disposed to have _slanted eyes_.
I'd forgotten that the eyes of Orientals are_ literally_ slanted.
--
-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
More information about the Ads-l
mailing list