[Ads-l] banana

[Barretts Mail]

On 29 Oct 2019, at 17:41, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> On Tue, Oct 29, 2019 at 8:07 PM Bill Mullins wrote:
> 
>> On Tue, Oct 29, 2019 at 3:14 PM Ben Zimmer wrote:
>>> 
>>> (The OED's use of "oriental" in the definition is... unfortunate.)
>> 
>> In what way?
>> 
> 
> The OED definition for "banana" reads (in part): "an oriental person
> regarded, esp. by other orientals, as adopting or identifying with white
> culture." The noun "oriental" is labeled as "dated, now usually offensive"
> by Merriam-Webster, "often offensive" by American Heritage, and simply
> "offensive" by Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford (now on Lexico) has an extensive
> usage note that begins, "The term 'oriental' has an out-of-date feel as a
> term denoting people from Asia; it tends to be associated with a rather
> offensive stereotype of the people and their customs as inscrutable and
> exotic."
> 
> https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/oriental
> 
> Considering that the OED def was drafted in 2013, it's hard to understand
> why it uses a term considered dated and offensive by Oxford's own
> dictionaries.
> 
> —bgz

Isn’t the UK somewhat different in this regard? Lexico (https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/oriental <https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/oriental>) doesn’t draw a difference, but Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Oriental <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Oriental>) says it’s offensive in North America. See the English Stack Exchange (https://tinyurl.com/yyu3b9vw <https://tinyurl.com/yyu3b9vw>) for some discussion on this.

Benjamin Barrett (he/his/him)
Formerly of Seattle, WA
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org