I have never heard this. Where did you get this information? I’d like to see some sources on that.
I have never heard sailor’s using farmer as a derogatory adjective. The traditional word was “sojer”. Please tell me where they called each other “farmer”.
>> To call a Hispanic sailor a campesino would be the same
Again, I’d like to see sources for this as it is the first time I have heard this.
I don’t think so, gringito.
I asked around at work today (I’m a spanish-speaking gringa so a lot of stuff whooshes me) and the consensus was that campesino was derogatory only if you thought being called a farmer, or country-person was a negative. Now peone, that term had everybody divided into different camps.
Interestingly, it wasn’t until I started learning Spanish that I realized that in English our word pee-on (I don’t even know how to spell it) essentially meant pawn and was the same as the Spanish “peone.” Having seen the television version of Shogun as a child, I’d always thougt it literally derived from someone you could, well, pee onto – pee-on. What’s sad is, I’m not stupid, either.
As far as Spanish, a lot whooshes over me, but the wife helps. Here’s her “campesino” answer:
Here’s my wife’s take on “campesino”: it’s just someone from the country. I asked her specifically because I’m postive that I’ve heard her using it in a negative manner, but she insists that no. I’m not sure I believe her, but she points out that “naco” is better (I use that word myself). I imagine that like what everyone else has said, it’s all in context, to whit, “oye, farm boy, what’re you doin’ with that compuuuter?”
Peón (“peone”) can mean pawn, unskilled laborer, or farm worker, among others words. It is easy to see why calling someone who isn’t a peón that way may be seen as an insult. Similar to campesino, only if you intend to make it with a negative connotation.
Telling a farmer that he is a campesino won’t be seen as offensive unless you are insulting him or using it to convey the view of an uneducated person. Similar with peón, you can call an unskilled laborer a peón as long as you are not insulting him.
Thanks for the answers. So the consensus is that it would only be offensive in a context where calling someone a “farmer” would be offensive. What I was concerned about is the “peasant” translation. In english calling someone a peasant would almost always be insulting, if you could do it un-ironically. But it seems that peasant shouldn’t be the primary translation.
Little late on this, but FWIW
My first job out of college was as a quality assurance shift supervisor at a food packaging factory in Chicago. Most of my line monitors, lab techs, and kitchen techs were Mexican immigrants with a US highschool education, some with some junior college. The vast, vast majority of line workers in the factory were very recent central american immigrants. In general, the line workers and my QA crew got on quite well, but on the odd occasion that one of the line workers screwed something up, campesino was one of my tech’s favorite low-grade insults. From what they told me and the context, if said in a derogatory manner it can mean something like “stupid farmboy.”
Let’s try to get things right. Contrary to what has been said and AFAIK, the word “peone” does not exist in Spanish. There is the word “peón” which has several meanings. It is derived from “pie” (foot) and one of the original meanings, now almost obsolete, is “an infantryman on foot”. It is the name for the pawn in the game of chess and another meaning, possibly the most common, is “a laborer who does work which requires no special skill or art”. It is in no way derogatory or insulting except that the name of any job or profession which does not require much skill could be used that way. You can say someone collects the garbage or flips burgers or drives a cab in a very derogatory manner but that does not mean the term is derogatory per se.
AskNott, I am still waiting for cites on the use of “farmer” among sailors.