[Lexicog] stereotypical beliefs and lexicography

[Fritz Goerling]

Noah J. Jacobs, in his book "Naming Day in Eden" (The MacMillan Company
Collier MacMillan Ltd, London 1958) collected the following stereotypical
beliefs about nationalities:

"Foreigners are sometimes called by the names of their favorite foods:
the Germans refer to the Italians as Macaroni or Spaghetti
                           and to the Jews as Knoblauch (garlic)
the Rumanians call the Bulgarians "onions and garlic"
                            the Greeks "blue herrings"

(I have heard anglophones refer to Frenchmen as "frogs" and Germans as
"krauts"
and to Asians as "chop sueys.")

"Each nation associates a host of miscellaneous vulgarities, vices, diseases
and
disagreeable traits with foreign countries. The Japanese call foreigners
'stinking
of foreign hair' (keto kusai); the Czechs call a Hungarian a 'pimple'
(uher). In
Hungary and Austria the cockroach is known as a 'Swabian' (swab, Schwabe),
in Poland as a 'Prussian' (prusak) and in Germany as a 'Frenchman'
(Franzose).
The French retaliate obliquely by calling the scurvy louse a 'Spaniard'
(espagnol).
The Romans, however, with fine partiality named this troublesome insect
after
the Germans and the Poles, 'latta germanica' and 'coccus polonicus.' The
Germans
have taken this pedicular parasite to their bosoms and made it a term of
endearment
(Lausbub), killing it, so to speak, with kindness. In Italy a privy has at
times been
known as an 'Englishman' (l'inglese) and in Poland as a 'bismarck', in honor
of the
Iron Chancellor. In England an errand to the privy has in former times been
variously described as 'to go to Egypt', 'to take an Irish shave' or with
the
quaint euphemism 'to give a Chinaman a music lesson.' A malignant scalp
ailment is commonly known as the Polish disease, the rickets as the
English disease. Syphilis, originally the name of a shepherd in a Latin poem
published in 1530, was called the Corinthian disease by the Greeks, the
Spanish gout by the English, the French disease by the Germans and the
Florentine or Neapolitan disease by the French.  One infected by this dread
affliction was said by the Dutch "to have seen Spain" and by the French
"to have gone to Sweden or to Bavaria." ...
A cheat or a sharper at cards is a 'Greek' to the English and French, and
a 'loudmouth' to the Arabs; the Dutch attribute excessive boasting to the
French, the Portuguese to the Spanish, and the English to the Gascons
(gasconade); the Germans say 'proud as a Spaniard' (stolz wie ein Spanier),
the French 'proud as a Scot (fier comme un écossais)' and the Rumanians
'stubborn as a Bulgarian (incapatanat ca un bulgar).' We take 'French
leave' but the French 'English leave' (filer à l'anglaise); when Poles
formerly
took 'German leave' (abszd niemiecki) they went bankrupt, which in French
was 'to go to Belgium' (filer en Belgique). To play a dirty trick is in
French
'to play a Chinese trick' (faire une chinoiserie), in Spanish 'a Basque
trick'
(basquerie), in Polish 'to pull a Swabian' (oszwabic). Excessive drinking
in French is 'to drink like a Pole' (gris comme un polonais) and in Czech
'to drink like a Dutchman'; to get drunk in Spanish is 'to catch a Turk'
(coger una turca). In Spanish 'to be surrounded by Englishmen ' means
to be dunned by many creditors, and 'to work for the English' is to work
for nothing."

Fritz Goerling







Patrick Hanks wrote:
  Sometimes there is reciprocal derogation. English "take French leave" is
(or was) matched by French "filer à l'anglaise".  Any other good examples?
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lexicography/attachments/20050222/f05bafd5/attachment.htm>