That is it contains English language words and terms translated into Irish (Gaelic). I was looking up another term recently and came across “piccaninny”. :smack:
I just had to check what other now offensive terms were in it. So far I’ve found “chink” translated as Chinese and also “nigger” which at least has the note *(contemptuous) *but also handily includes a translation of the phrase “nigger in the woodpile”. Directly below that is the term “nigger-brown”. Checking I see the dictionary was originally compiled in 1959. I would have thought by 1992 however they wouldn’t have included those terms. I’m not sure if there’s a more recent edition of the dictionary. I’m now curious what someone would be translating that they’d need to find the Irish terms for these racial epithets.
Have you ever come across questionable entries of this nature in dictionaries?
Well, any good English-language dictionary will have those words in it, because - like it or not - they’re in the language. However, the definition will inevitably note that the term is offensive or vulgar.
I suppose there’s a point to including such words in a translating dictionary. A person who encounters such words in a language not his own does need to know (1) what they mean, and (2) that they’re not used by thoughtful people.
I have an English-Chinese dictionary that is about 95% communist propaganda. (Example context sentence, for the word “blood”: “The fields of the landlords are watered with the blood of the workers.”)
It contains plenty of racist words, including some real head-scratchers, eg. Fuck You Charlie. (See Charlie.)
Is it a new 1992 edition of a 1959 dictionary, or just a new impression? If the latter, that would imply that no revisions have been made, just that a new set of copies have been printed off (possibly newly typeset).
Anyway, as cwthree says, just because some words or expressions are offensive, that does not mean that they are not part of the language, and it is proper that they should be in a dictionary. (I do wonder, though, how often anyone might feel the need to be offensive towards black people in Irish. I mean, how many black people speak Irish and are going to understand that they are being demeaned?).
Yeah, I wouldn’t consider the word’s presence questionable. It’s a big list of words that people say, the bad stuff has to be in there as much as the good. I’d find the dictionary’s definition to be questionable if it wasn’t made clear that this was considered an offensive term.
Nah. It sounds like a borrowed Americanism. When we were kids we’d say “Fuck you, Charlie” all the time. Or more commonly, “Chuck you, Farley.” Followed by more insults in that vein (“Think you’re smuckin’ fart? Go back off in your own jack yard. And take your whole fam damily with you.” :D). It had nothing to do with the Viet Cong. School-age kids are easily amused by playing with obscene language.
You better not be firing these out the next time you’re in the Gaeltacht. It’s literally “Chinese” Síneach so it’s not really a proper translation in that it loses all of its offensiveness in the Irish version.
Under “Nigger,” it says (contemptuous) and “see NEGRO”. “Chink” is not given any annotations. In his reverse dictionary (which I know has a different author but I’ve been assured that the same man did most of the work on both), “Chink” is not given in the definition, only “Chinese.”
cwthree and njtt should note that it does not contain any swear words (“fuck,” “shit(e)” etc.) and so probably isn’t including racist terms simply in order to provide a complete picture of the language.
I remember Margaret Cho–back when she was still funny–complaining about being called a chink on the street. “I’m not a chink, I’m a gook! Can’t you even be *racist *correctly?!”
If the Ó’Dónaill Irish-English Dictionary contained racist terms in Irish translated into English I would understand more. It just seems pointless translating dodgy terms into Irish where no real equivalent exists. I suppose, theoretically, an Irish speaker not fluent in English could come across one of these terms and wonder what it means and consult the dictionary but even in 1959 there weren’t all that many people who would have had such a need.
Well any black people who grew up in Ireland would at least have some knowledge of the language and there are some African immigrants who’ve learned the language in adulthood. For example, here’s a rapper originally from Zimbabwe.
