# Is sheep shagger a racial slur?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sheep-shagger-a-racial-slur/986146>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [June 27, 2023, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sheep-shagger-a-racial-slur/986146 "2023-06-27T00:02:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 6

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**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2023, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sheep-shagger-a-racial-slur/986146/101 "2023-07-03T02:15:39Z")

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> [@Cervaise](#):
>
> “Do they call me Seamus the fence builder?”

Yeah, I saw the thread title and immediately thought “Are the Scots complaining about being the butt of jokes now?”

But myself, coming as I do from a long line of sheep shaggers, from my grandma’s Gaelic Ayrshires to my father’s people from Ulaanbaatar, and his great-grandfather’s homestead near Liechtenstein, I’ll defend it as a proud tradition, unfettered by national boundaries.

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**Author:** ![Chey\_212](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Chey\_212](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chey_212)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2024, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sheep-shagger-a-racial-slur/986146/102 "2024-02-18T01:24:13Z")

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No they do, it’s normally aimed at Welsh people - I’ve seen it and been called one both as a child and recently as an adult.

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**Author:** ![colinfred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colinfred/32/21338_2.png) [@colinfred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colinfred)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2024, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sheep-shagger-a-racial-slur/986146/103 "2024-02-18T17:25:08Z")

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I was referring to China Guy’s nonsense that “shagger” on its own is a commonly used expression. “Sheep shagger” as a deliberate epithet for Welsh people is a different thing.

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**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2024, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sheep-shagger-a-racial-slur/986146/104 "2024-02-18T18:09:27Z")

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> [@colinfred](#):
>
> I was referring to China Guy’s nonsense that “shagger” on its own is a commonly used expression.

“Shag” or “shagging” as a verb or “have a shag” as a noun are very common, of course, mildly vulgar slang for having generic sex / the sex act. As a non-native to UK dialect, @China_Guy has probably heard “shag” and “shagging” a lot and just didn’t pick up on the fact that colloquially for some reason we don’t tend to extend that to use “shagger” to mean someone having generic sex.

If I hear “shagger”, I definitely feel an urge to infer “sheep” in front of it, whereas “shag” has no such connotation. It’s just one of those things about usage that don’t have any logical explanation.

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