# Are These Terms Offensive? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 9, 2018, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-terms-offensive/817552 "2018-07-09T06:30:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-terms-offensive/817552/1 "2018-07-09T06:30:27Z")
You opinions please ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-terms-offensive/817552/2 "2018-07-09T06:32:30Z")
What terms? ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-terms-offensive/817552/3 "2018-07-09T06:33:12Z")
Top secret. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-terms-offensive/817552/4 "2018-07-09T06:34:23Z")
Sorry - took a few minutes to get the poll up ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-terms-offensive/817552/5 "2018-07-09T06:59:43Z")
> [@zoid](#): > > Sorry - took a few minutes to get the poll up Now _that’s_ offensive. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-terms-offensive/817552/6 "2018-07-09T07:28:47Z")
Yes, they are offensive. ---
**Author:** ![Tread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Tread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tread)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-terms-offensive/817552/7 "2018-07-09T08:05:02Z")
To some yes, to others no. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-terms-offensive/817552/8 "2018-07-09T08:07:18Z")
> [@zoid](#): > > Sorry - took a few minutes to get the poll up As the actress said to the bishop. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-terms-offensive/817552/9 "2018-07-09T09:31:52Z")
Mick can be used either way, but it’s a little like the “n” word - if you don’t know me don’t use it. I’ve never heard “Polack” used in a friendly manner, but always in the context of a dumb joke. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-terms-offensive/817552/10 "2018-07-09T09:48:46Z")
Mick is always offensive. Polack is _usually_ offensive, but there’s been some attempt to take it back. I don’t know of any serious effort to do that with Mick. It helps the effort that Polack used to be neutral and still is in some other languages, whereas Mick isn’t the same in origin. IMEandO, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-terms-offensive/817552/11 "2018-07-09T10:52:54Z")
> [@Tread](#): > > To some yes, to others no. Yeah, I think the only people who can really answer this are from Ireland or Poland, and I wouldn’t expect them to all agree. I don’t use either term (and lots more, too) because I don’t want to run the risk of giving offense. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-terms-offensive/817552/12 "2018-07-09T10:59:21Z")
Both of those words could be used in an offensive manner. But that’s true of many words, I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-terms-offensive/817552/13 "2018-07-09T11:09:58Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > But that’s true of many words, I suppose. You are _so_ insightful! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Grumbacher\_Red](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85e7bf/32.png) [@Grumbacher\_Red](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumbacher_Red)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-terms-offensive/817552/14 "2018-07-09T12:02:10Z")
I am just coming off of 2 viewings yesterday on TCM of Streetcar Named Desire, and when Blanche refers to Stanley as a Polack, he gets very angry and tells her not to call him that, he says “I am a Pole”, as if Pole isn’t nearly as insulting, even though both Polack and Pole both essentially mean the same thing and have the origin. Polack is a word that clearly has been used in America to demean a specific immigrant group, and of course spawned generations of Polack jokes, always with a punchline about them being stupid. This is certainly the way Blanche is using to refer to Stanley, in addition to calling him “common” and a “survivor of the Stone Age” among other things, it’s apparent she feels her sister has married beneath her. I would say contextually, Mick and Polack are offensive, especially if used to prop up an argument by someone who isn’t Irish or Polish towards someone who is. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-terms-offensive/817552/15 "2018-07-09T12:03:47Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > It helps the effort that Polack used to be neutral and still is in some other languages, whereas Mick isn’t the same in origin. IMEandO, of course. Wasn’t Polack used in _Hamlet_ in a neutral sense? I remember being taken aback when I read the play the first time in high school. Anyway, I wasn’t aware of the effort to reclaim it. That’s interesting. I’ve only ever heard it as a slur, other than the archaic use. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-terms-offensive/817552/16 "2018-07-09T12:18:53Z")
For what it’s worth, I’m 64 years old, ethnically half Irish and a quarter Polish, with a German last name. Because of the Polack jokes that were popular during my childhood, I always viewed the word Polack as intentionally offensive, and it was generally received as such by friends who had Polish last names. I have never viewed Mick as offensive. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-terms-offensive/817552/17 "2018-07-09T12:28:29Z")
I have never heard them used by non-Irish or Non-Polish as anything but a slur. In the area where i grew up, mick/mickey was also used as a slur to mean Catholics in general. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-terms-offensive/817552/18 "2018-07-09T12:58:47Z")
> [@Grumbacher\_Red](#): > > I am just coming off of 2 viewings yesterday on TCM of Streetcar Named Desire, and when Blanche refers to Stanley as a Polack, he gets very angry and tells her not to call him that, he says “I am a Pole”, as if Pole isn’t nearly as insulting, even though both Polack and Pole both essentially mean the same thing and have the origin. Polack is a word that clearly has been used in America to demean a specific immigrant group, and of course spawned generations of Polack jokes, always with a punchline about them being stupid. This is certainly the way Blanche is using to refer to Stanley, in addition to calling him “common” and a “survivor of the Stone Age” among other things, it’s apparent she feels her sister has married beneath her. > > I would say contextually, Mick and Polack are offensive, especially if used to prop up an argument by someone who isn’t Irish or Polish towards someone who is. Pole and Polack do not mean the same thing just because they indicate the same ethnicity. One is descriptive, the other pejorative, so how could they mean the same thing? Do Anglo, Whitey, Caucasian, and Aryan mean the same thing? As a general rule it is always best to leave pejorative naming to those it describes. If someone wants to call himself a Mick, that’s just fine, but unless you know exactly how someone’s going to take it, stick to Irish. ---
**Author:** ![Grumbacher\_Red](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85e7bf/32.png) [@Grumbacher\_Red](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumbacher_Red)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-terms-offensive/817552/19 "2018-07-09T13:21:04Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Pole and Polack do not mean the same thing just because they indicate the same ethnicity. One is descriptive, the other pejorative, so how could they mean the same thing? Do Anglo, Whitey, Caucasian, and Aryan mean the same thing? > > As a general rule it is always best to leave pejorative naming to those it describes. If someone wants to call himself a Mick, that’s just fine, but unless you know exactly how someone’s going to take it, stick to Irish. I had just done a quick look-up before I posted, and to clarify, mainly I meant Polack and Pole have the same origin and started out with the same meaning, deriving from Polaine. One became a dirty word over time, the other didn’t. Unlike the N-word, which was always a dirty word, as it is a corruption of another word. > **[Polack | Etymology of Polack by etymonline](https://www.etymonline.com/word/Polack)** > > "Polish person," 1570s, from Polish Polak "(male) Polish person," related to Polanie… See origin and meaning of polack. I am not trying to be an expert, just bringing something up I thought was interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-terms-offensive/817552/20 "2018-07-09T13:21:25Z")
Yes. And Yes. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-terms-offensive/817552.md?page=2)