# People, Eskimo != Inuit !!!1121 **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 8, 2007, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-eskimo-inuit-1121/414823 "2007-08-08T02:50:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2007, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-eskimo-inuit-1121/414823/81 "2007-08-12T21:42:17Z")
[QUOTE=John Mace] Eskimo is, potentially, a derogatory term, being a word that does not derive from any of the populations it tries to describe. [/QUOTE] I’ve heard this logic before and I still think it smacks of ultrasensitive political correctness. Black people refer to themselves using the n-word, yet a white guy in Harlem wouldn’t be thanked for using the correct nomenclature. The French called the Deutsch ‘Allemands’ and to us they’re German, but there’s no problem. Or is it just that any word a white person has used in the past to describe a nonwhite person becomes derogatory? ---
**Author:** ![netsplit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecc23a/32.png) [@netsplit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/netsplit)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-eskimo-inuit-1121/414823/82 "2007-08-13T00:45:48Z")
[QUOTE=Sitnam] I’ve heard this logic before and I still think it smacks of ultrasensitive political correctness. Black people refer to themselves using the n-word, yet a white guy in Harlem wouldn’t be thanked for using the correct nomenclature. The French called the Deutsch ‘Allemands’ and to us they’re German, but there’s no problem. Or is it just that any word a white person has used in the past to describe a nonwhite person becomes derogatory? [/QUOTE] Well the n word isn’t a black derived word. It’s a slur derived from the slave trade. Eskimo’s etymology is believed to derive from a slur meaning “eaters of raw flesh”. Would you be okay with me calling you “nasty putrid plague carrier”? Maybe “plague rat”? (if you’re not European descended lets just pretend you are) Because European history with it’s gross incompetence at sanitation bred alot of nasty plague which they carried about the globe. Now I’m sure you bath regularly and aren’t carrying any nasties, as does virtually anyone in the first world. Well I fricken properly cook my meat, well actually over cook it cause phobia of raw meat, except delicious, scrumptious sushi. Why should I be called an eater of raw flesh? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-eskimo-inuit-1121/414823/83 "2007-08-13T01:30:08Z")
[QUOTE=netsplit] Eskimo’s etymology is believed to derive from a slur meaning “eaters of raw flesh”. [/QUOTE] [This has fallen out of favor](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskimo#Origin_of_the_term_Eskimo): > [@](#): > > Some Algonquian languages call Eskimos by names that mean “eaters of raw meat” or something that sounds similar. The Plains Ojibwe, for example, use the word êškipot (“one who eats raw,” from ašk-, “raw,” and -po-, “to eat”) to refer to Eskimos. It is entirely possible that the Ojibwe have adopted words resembling “Eskimo” by borrowing them from French, and the French word merely sounds like Ojibwe words that can be interpreted as “eaters of raw meat”. > > But in the period of the earliest attested French use of the word, the Plains Ojibwe were not in contact with Europeans, nor did they have very much direct contact with the Inuit in pre-colonial times. > > The Innu-aimun (Montagnais) language, a dialect of Cree which was known to French traders at the time of the earliest attestation of esquimaux, does not have vocabulary fitting this etymological analysis. Furthermore, since Cree people also traditionally consumed raw meat, a pejorative significance based on this etymology seems unlikely. A variety of competing etymologies have been proposed over the years, but the most likely source is the Montagnais word meaning “snowshoe-netter”. The word assime·w means “she laces a snowshoe” in Montagnais. Since Montagnais speakers refer to the neighbouring Mi’kmaq people using words that sound very much like eskimo, many researchers have concluded that this is the more likely origin of the word. > > … > > ^ Mailhot, J. (1978). “L’étymologie de «Esquimau» revue et corrigée.” Etudes Inuit/Inuit Studies 2-2:59-70. > ^ Goddard, Ives (1984). “Synonymy.” In Arctic, ed. David Damas. Vol. 5 of Handbook of North American Indians, ed. William C. Sturtevant, pp. 5-7. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. Cited in Campbell 1997 > ^ Campbell, Lyle (1997). American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America, pg. 394. New York: Oxford University Press ---
**Author:** ![netsplit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecc23a/32.png) [@netsplit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/netsplit)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-eskimo-inuit-1121/414823/84 "2007-08-13T04:37:48Z")
[QUOTE=Fear Itself] [This has fallen out of favor](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskimo#Origin_of_the_term_Eskimo): [/QUOTE] Maybe but the term picked up negative connotations while the other etymology was popular. Put it simply would you like to be called something that meant “plague rat” but later turned out it _prolly_ didn’t? Plus Eskimo means many arctic cultures. Lumping them all together is about like lumping together, Scottish, Irish, German, Italian, and Spanish cultures. Italian Haggis is naaaasty ---
**Author:** ![bdgr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@bdgr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bdgr)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-eskimo-inuit-1121/414823/85 "2007-08-13T04:42:57Z")
Actually…Plague rat is kinda cool…new band name or user name at the least. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-eskimo-inuit-1121/414823/86 "2007-08-13T11:53:31Z")
[QUOTE=netsplit] Plus Eskimo means many arctic cultures. Lumping them all together is about like lumping together, Scottish, Irish, German, Italian, and Spanish cultures. [/QUOTE] Actually, that’s what a lot of people do. They talk abut “the West” or “Europeans” and so on. ---
**Author:** ![netsplit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecc23a/32.png) [@netsplit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/netsplit)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-eskimo-inuit-1121/414823/87 "2007-08-13T15:05:06Z")
[QUOTE=smiling bandit] Actually, that’s what a lot of people do. They talk abut “the West” or “Europeans” and so on. [/QUOTE] Exactly, but when they talk about lasagna, do they call it European food or Italian food? When you talk loonies and twoonies do you call it North American money or Canadian money? That’s the difference. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2007, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-eskimo-inuit-1121/414823/88 "2007-08-15T00:33:58Z")
[QUOTE=netsplit] Plus Eskimo means many arctic cultures. Lumping them all together is about like lumping together, Scottish, Irish, German, Italian, and Spanish cultures. Italian Haggis is naaaasty [/QUOTE] That’s kinda my point. You could lump us together if you’re talking about us all. I don’t know that much about those living in northern Canada, I don’t really care. If I say Eskimo I mean a nebulous group living in a region sharing similar ethnic traits and a similar lifestyle. If for the sake of some specific discussion, Scottish, Irish, German, Italian and Spanish cultures are all similar and someone uses a word for us, fine, if not the speaker is just wrong, either way I won’t get upset. Two brothers don’t want to be called the same name, but to discuss anything involving people you have to use some generalizations. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2007, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-eskimo-inuit-1121/414823/89 "2007-08-15T12:20:35Z")
[QUOTE=Sapo] You gringos are so funny [/QUOTE] I take exception to that ,you can call me Whitey ,Limey,Honkey ,White boy,Rost Biff or paleface but Gringo hurts my feelings ,but that aside lets get back to finding out what we’re supposed to call the blubber eaters without upsetting them. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2007, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-eskimo-inuit-1121/414823/90 "2007-08-15T14:28:04Z")
[QUOTE=Lust4Life] . . . lets get back to finding out what we’re supposed to call the blubber eaters without upsetting them. [/QUOTE] In your case, based on geographic proximity, it would be “Norwegians.” ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2007, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-eskimo-inuit-1121/414823/91 "2007-08-15T18:44:25Z")
When I kayak, I use the term “Eskimo Roll”. Is there a PC term for this manuever? [http://www.schools.ash.org.au/daptohigh/eskimoroll.htm](http://www.schools.ash.org.au/daptohigh/eskimoroll.htm) ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2007, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-eskimo-inuit-1121/414823/92 "2007-08-15T21:16:16Z")
[QUOTE=vetbridge] When I kayak, I use the term “Eskimo Roll”. Is there a PC term for this manuever? [http://www.schools.ash.org.au/daptohigh/eskimoroll.htm](http://www.schools.ash.org.au/daptohigh/eskimoroll.htm) [/QUOTE] “Rinsing out a few things”. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2007, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-eskimo-inuit-1121/414823/93 "2007-08-16T02:48:16Z")
Nobody I know gets their panties in a wad over the term “eskimo” (unless it’s a Native from Southeast, in which case they’re actually Native Americans). In fact, there is a subsidiary company of Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (the biggest Native corporation in the state, doing $6B of business each year) called [SKW Eskimos](http://www.skweskimos.com/). If the Natives don’t mind the name, why would anybody else? ---
**Author:** ![Raygun99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Raygun99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raygun99)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2007, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-eskimo-inuit-1121/414823/94 "2007-08-16T04:13:49Z")
The Inuit mind. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2007, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-eskimo-inuit-1121/414823/95 "2007-08-16T15:08:34Z")
[QUOTE=Raygun99] The Inuit mind. [/QUOTE] I think you mean that the Canadian Inuit mind. Alaska Natives don’t seem to have much of a problem with it. My former boss was an Inuit from Barrow, educated at Harvard, and often referred to herself as a “poor little Eskimo girl from Barrow”. She’s now the CEO of the regional corp and probably still refers to herself that way. Canadian Inuit don’t like the word; Alaskan Inuit prefer ‘Native’, but really don’t get excited about ‘Eskimo’. Different strokes. ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2007, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-eskimo-inuit-1121/414823/96 "2007-08-16T15:17:43Z")
[QUOTE=GingerOfTheNorth] “Rinsing out a few things”. [/QUOTE] Great phrase, soooo true! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2007, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-eskimo-inuit-1121/414823/97 "2007-08-16T15:18:40Z")
[QUOTE=Lust4Life] I take exception to that ,you can call me Whitey ,Limey,Honkey ,White boy,Rost Biff or paleface but Gringo hurts my feelings ,but that aside lets get back to finding out what we’re supposed to call the blubber eaters without upsetting them. [/QUOTE] Hey pal, It’s _white devil_ or nothing! :rolleyes: My ancestors didn’t wipe out yours for notihng! … … 😃 ---
**Author:** ![netsplit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecc23a/32.png) [@netsplit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/netsplit)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2007, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-eskimo-inuit-1121/414823/98 "2007-08-16T16:26:50Z")
[QUOTE=Sitnam] That’s kinda my point. You could lump us together if you’re talking about us all. I don’t know that much about those living in northern Canada, I don’t really care. If I say Eskimo I mean a nebulous group living in a region sharing similar ethnic traits and a similar lifestyle. If for the sake of some specific discussion, Scottish, Irish, German, Italian and Spanish cultures are all similar and someone uses a word for us, fine, if not the speaker is just wrong, either way I won’t get upset. Two brothers don’t want to be called the same name, but to discuss anything involving people you have to use some generalizations. [/QUOTE] I don’t think you really get it. Lets try it like this. Can I use a word for you consider to be a slur? Your ancestors were so fucking stupid they didn’t bath for a thousands years because they thought bathing was bad hygiene. So when I generalize about your customs I shall call you morons ( word mistakenly thought to mean dumber then George Bush after 120 mph head trauma and 30 beers, but actually means “Old Navy™ patron”) Hey moron, care to discuss moron historical customs with me? ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2007, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-eskimo-inuit-1121/414823/99 "2007-08-16T18:02:44Z")
[QUOTE=netsplit] I don’t think you really get it. Lets try it like this. Can I use a word for you consider to be a slur? Your ancestors were so fucking stupid they didn’t bath for a thousands years because they thought bathing was bad hygiene. So when I generalize about your customs I shall call you morons ( word mistakenly thought to mean dumber then George Bush after 120 mph head trauma and 30 beers, but actually means “Old Navy™ patron”) Hey moron, care to discuss moron historical customs with me? [/QUOTE] :rolleyes: There’s a wee bit of difference between making a word which is culturally useful in describing a group among whom you see a relationship (regardless of whether or not they do) and deliberately picking an obnoxious word. People can and will tke offense at many things which they ought not to. I’m not obligated to continually change my ways merely to suit them, but I am obligated to respect them generally. If they wish to interpret a specific word so they can feel offended, they can do that and be stupid about it. But they don’t get to order me about just as I should not deliberately slur them. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2007, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-eskimo-inuit-1121/414823/100 "2007-08-16T18:14:27Z")
Well, “nigger” is just a local pronunciation of “negro”, which is just a spanish word meaning “black”. So “nigger” just means “black”, and so why should anyone get upset? It’s not up to you to police your language, and if people want to take offense when you call them niggers, that’s their problem, not yours. Now, honestly, if anyone flipped out because you called them an Eskimo, then that would be over the top. But if you called them an Eskimo, and they explained that they didn’t like that word and prefered some other word, would you continue to call them an Eskimo knowing that it annoyed them, or would you from then on refer to them by their prefered ethnic identifier even while privately thinking they were over-reacting? If you chose option 1, then you’re a jerk. It’s not like they’re “ordering you around”. “Call me an Inuit! Bark like a dog! Stand on one foot! Now go back out on the tundra and get me my money, Bitch!” It’s more like you visit Turkey and get to talking with someone, and you refer to them as a Turk, but they correct you and tell you that they’re a Kurd, not a Turk. Are you going to insist that since they are a citizen of Turkey that they are a Turk, and continue to refer to them as a Turk? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-eskimo-inuit-1121/414823.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-eskimo-inuit-1121/414823.md?page=6)