# Does the word 'Jew' have a negative connotation? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 7, 2016, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-word-jew-have-a-negative-connotation/751431 "2016-04-07T12:57:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bomberswarm2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c37758/32.png) [@bomberswarm2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bomberswarm2)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-word-jew-have-a-negative-connotation/751431/1 "2016-04-07T12:57:09Z")
I was thinking about this the other day, I’ve never seen anybody or heard of anybody being called a jew as an insult, i.e. “You Jew,” (except in fictional media), but when I think of saying something about Judaism, I feel like saying the word Jew (or to some extent calling people Jews) would make anything I say sound insulting in some way. Is this the case? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-word-jew-have-a-negative-connotation/751431/2 "2016-04-07T13:04:21Z")
It just depends on how you say it. There’ve been other threads addressing ‘Jew’ vs. ‘Jewish person’. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-word-jew-have-a-negative-connotation/751431/3 "2016-04-07T13:04:35Z")
If you’re using Jew as an adjective, or when you’re using it as an action “he jewed me” then it’s pejorative, as a noun it isn’t. I have a hard time believing you’ve never come across this though. How old are you? ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-word-jew-have-a-negative-connotation/751431/4 "2016-04-07T13:04:44Z")
As the great Louis CK explained, it depends on your tone of voice: [http://www.cc.com/video-clips/wzsdq0/louis-c-k---hilarious-uncensored----jew--is-a-funny-word](http://www.cc.com/video-clips/wzsdq0/louis-c-k---hilarious-uncensored----jew--is-a-funny-word) ---
**Author:** ![bomberswarm2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c37758/32.png) [@bomberswarm2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bomberswarm2)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-word-jew-have-a-negative-connotation/751431/5 "2016-04-07T13:08:04Z")
> [@Grey](#): > > If you’re using Jew as an adjective, or when you’re using it as an action “he jewed me” then it’s pejorative, as a noun it isn’t. > > I have a hard time believing you’ve never come across this though. How old are you? I’m betting much younger than you (and living in a area with practically no Jewish population) ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-word-jew-have-a-negative-connotation/751431/6 "2016-04-07T13:17:23Z")
> [@bomberswarm2](#): > > I’m betting much younger than you (and living in a area with practically no Jewish population) Start wearing a yarmulke and answering questions with a question and you’ll hear it before long. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-word-jew-have-a-negative-connotation/751431/7 "2016-04-07T13:22:46Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Start wearing a yarmulke and answering questions with a question and you’ll hear it before long. Nu? ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-word-jew-have-a-negative-connotation/751431/8 "2016-04-07T13:54:13Z")
> [@bomberswarm2](#): > > I’m betting much younger than you (and living in a area with practically no Jewish population) Maybe; I’m around 40. That said, a lack of a jewish population doesn’t mean there’s a lack of jewish insults. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-word-jew-have-a-negative-connotation/751431/9 "2016-04-07T14:07:47Z")
**Does the word ‘Jew’ have a negative connotation?** Often it does. Of course how it’s said is a factor, but also consider: Just the fact that it’s being mentioned in the first place usually is rooted in some degree of anti-semitism. Why does it matter that someone is Jewish? In most contexts it doesn’t, and it merely serves to identify them as the “other.” In most normal conversation, phrases like “he’s a Jew” have a harsher feel than phrases like “he’s Jewish.” Part of that is the impact of a one-syllable word, and part of it is the impact of the noun over the adjective. Consider that in most parallel situations, saying someone is Italian, or Black, or Chinese can often be merely descriptive, but the nouns – wop, nigger, chink – are clearly pejorative. There are also clearly pejorative nouns for Jews (hebe, kike) but even the theoretically neutral “Jew” often comes across as being in the same class. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-word-jew-have-a-negative-connotation/751431/10 "2016-04-07T14:09:46Z")
> [@Grey](#): > > …a lack of a jewish population doesn’t mean there’s a lack of jewish insults. Quite true. Often it’s people who have never met folks who are Jewish, or Muslim, or [whatever] who most avidly buy into negative stereotypes about them. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-word-jew-have-a-negative-connotation/751431/11 "2016-04-07T14:16:56Z")
> [@Grey](#): > > Maybe; I’m around 40. That said, a lack of a jewish population doesn’t mean there’s a lack of jewish insults. Indeed. I didn’t know any Jewish people (at least to my knowledge) until I was a teenager. But calling someone a Jew for being cheap or greedy was a known and used insult. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-word-jew-have-a-negative-connotation/751431/12 "2016-04-07T14:17:59Z")
It isn’t offensive as a noun. If it were the whole Bible in Englsh would need to be heavily censored or changed. Having said that, there are of course ways to make it offensive by tone of voice, etc. But that’s true of any word. ---
**Author:** ![sbunny8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@sbunny8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sbunny8)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-word-jew-have-a-negative-connotation/751431/13 "2016-04-07T14:19:12Z")
When you use it as a verb, it’s very offensive; it means to haggle ruthlessly. This was a central point in the Brendan Fraser movie [School Ties](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105327/), about a high school football player falsely accused of academic dishonesty. It’s also listed in older versions of the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary and flagged as “offensive” (and subsequently removed from future editions, along with a couple hundred other offensive words). Example of usage: “The guy’s asking $600 for that car but I think I can jew him down to $300.” Notice that it’s spelled with a lowercase j, which is why it’s playable in Scrabble. I have heard a wide variety of people use it. More than once, I’ve interrupted and said something like “don’t use that word” and their reaction was confusion, asking me “what other word could I have possibly used?” then I suggested _bargain_ or **haggle** and they said “oh I hadn’t thought of that”. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-word-jew-have-a-negative-connotation/751431/14 "2016-04-07T15:00:40Z")
In another thread I related the story of a woman shocked by the fact that ‘jewed’ was a reference to Jews, like the word was ‘jood’ or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-word-jew-have-a-negative-connotation/751431/15 "2016-04-07T15:15:20Z")
> [@Grey](#): > > Maybe; I’m around 40. That said, a lack of a jewish population doesn’t mean there’s a lack of jewish insults. > [@Gary\_T](#): > > Quite true. Often it’s people who have never met folks who are Jewish, or Muslim, or [whatever] who most avidly buy into negative stereotypes about them. OTOH, the lack of a local Jewish population reduces the occasions for talking about the topic at all. As a teen & college kid in SoCal I never understood the motivation for anti-Jewish attitudes. Jews were completely assimilated and effectively invisible in my experience. They weren’t just innocuous; they were effectively absent. Or so it seemed. Anti-Semitism made as much sense as harboring a grudge about Martians. Later I moved to Long Island NY. Suddenly I could see why somebody who already didn’t like Others could find them a handy target. Not that they deserved to be a target. But that the topic could come up a lot more often in the course of ordinary day-to-day living. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-word-jew-have-a-negative-connotation/751431/16 "2016-04-07T15:18:46Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > In another thread I related the story of a woman shocked by the fact that ‘jewed’ was a reference to Jews, like the word was ‘jood’ or something like that. I cringe when “Hey Jewed” comes on the radio. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-word-jew-have-a-negative-connotation/751431/17 "2016-04-07T15:19:12Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > In another thread I related the story of a woman shocked by the fact that ‘jewed’ was a reference to Jews, like the word was ‘jood’ or something like that. This is a cross-lingual one, but I had something similar happen to me in Polish. Growing up, my parents used the words “cygan” and “cyganić” for “liar” and “to lie/tell a falsehood.” I also knew there were the “synonyms” “kłamca” and “kłamić.” It wasn’t until I was a teenager that I figured out that the “synonyms” were the standard Polish words for “liar” and “to lie” and “cygan” and “cyganić” literally meant “Gypsy” and “to Gyp(sy).” All my life until that point I had been using the words as what I thought was the standard form. I was horrified. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-word-jew-have-a-negative-connotation/751431/18 "2016-04-07T15:22:09Z")
Just don’t welsh on any bets and you’ll be fine. Or as the decidedly English wife of an American friend of mine once said “That’s mighty Irish of you!” Her tone said whatever it meant it absolutely \*wasn’t \*a good thing. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-word-jew-have-a-negative-connotation/751431/19 "2016-04-07T15:22:49Z")
If it’s used as an adjective (i.e. “Jew banker” or “Jew lawyer”), it’s pejorative. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-word-jew-have-a-negative-connotation/751431/20 "2016-04-07T15:32:32Z")
I can say, as a Jew, that it is not offensive. Some people who take offense, I think, have read anti-Semitic literature that talks about “the Jew,” as though such a thing is possible-- as though there are pronouncements you can make about the Jewish people as a whole, and you can speak about a representative “Jew” who stands for all Jews. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-word-jew-have-a-negative-connotation/751431.md?page=2)