# A child said What Is The \*\*\*\*\*? Fetching it to me with full hands.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-child-said-what-is-the-fetching-it-to-me-with-full-hands/224685>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [January 16, 2004, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-child-said-what-is-the-fetching-it-to-me-with-full-hands/224685 "2004-01-16T00:30:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![BigNik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/73ab20/32.png) [@BigNik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigNik)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-child-said-what-is-the-fetching-it-to-me-with-full-hands/224685/21 "2004-01-16T05:16:06Z")

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> [@BraheSilver](#):
>
> Okay, thanks. Follow-up question: am I supposed to be insulted by that? I mean, that’s the kind of thing you’d hear from the midget gangster in Bugs Bunny cartoons. “Mugsy, go take out da snitch.” It doesn’t exactly inspire moral outrage in my ears.

Depends on the situation. There are places where being labelled an informant - presumably loudly and publically - is at least a serious social liability and at worst a threat to your well-being.

> [@](#):
>
> That’s the beauty of Wiki - you can add information to the communal database. Of course, that’s if you want to be updating international databases of ethnic slurs. 😛

So what constitutes a slur? Some of the ones on the list and otherwise (sheep-shaggers, currymunchers, skips) I’ve never heard unaffectionately - I’d call them nicknames rather than slurs.

Opposed to that, I’ve never heard terms like seppo, jaarpie, leb, yid and so on used ‘nicely’ - they’re just terms of abuse. If you almost never hear the word without the participle ‘f–king’ in front of it, it probably counts as a slur. For example, when someone from a different ethnic background describes me as a ‘skip’, I’m probably not supposed to take offence. If they called me an ‘aussie’, I probably am.

And I don’t doubt that the terms are reversed in another part of the country. Possibly even in a different part of Sydney.

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**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-child-said-what-is-the-fetching-it-to-me-with-full-hands/224685/22 "2004-01-16T05:28:30Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> Follow-up question: am I supposed to be insulted by that?

Not so much insulted as terrorized. It’s not so much the word as the way it’s typically used. [Example here](http://groups.google.ca/groups?q=%22people+who+grass%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&selm=P0FT4.1877%24m%251.48483%40news6-win.server.ntlworld.com&rnum=7).

More [context](http://www.courtservice.gov.uk/cms/minimumterms_8756.htm):

> [@](#):
>
> Adrian Hull attacked the deceased in the Flower Park Raffles. Shortly after this, he told Donna Jackson that he had kicked the deceased?s head in because he was a heroin user who had grassed on a member of the Hull family for drug dealing.

[More:](http://www.knowhere.co.uk/3970.html)

> [@](#):
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> The magic gardens famous for the cecil hash brigade ,situated behind the libary and has had some famous residents including the infamous sanny john ,killed trying to murder a guy who grassed him for murder on the day he was released for murder …now thats wishaw!

[Little more…](http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/sr192/films.htm)

> [@](#):
>
> His first act when he is allowed back into the main prison–scarred, maimed and disturbed–is to murder the prisoner who grassed on the escapees three years before.

You get the idea… and besides which, **BigNik** got there first, I see.

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