# People from \_\_\_\_\_: Noun vs. Adjective **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 8, 2010, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-from-_____-noun-vs-adjective/542455 "2010-06-08T17:56:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-from-_____-noun-vs-adjective/542455/1 "2010-06-08T17:56:55Z")
Over in ATMB, a sidetrack started in one of the threads, discussing whether the term “Brit” is offensive to British people. That got me thinking. For some countries/areas, there are distinct adjective and noun forms, e.g.: Turkish person = Turk Spanish person = Spaniard Scottish person = Scot For others, the same word functions as both adjective and noun (oddly enough, all of the examples that pop to mind end in -an): Canadian person = Canadian Mexican person = Mexican German person = German Russian person = Russian But for many, it seems like there is no noun form, so we come up with nicknames. If I were to say, “I saw an English yesterday,” the first response would be “an English _what_?” Are there regularly-accepted inoffensive nouns for English people? Swiss? French? I’m talking about words that would be clear in the sentence “I saw a(n) \_\_\_\_\_.” Non-gender-specific plain singular nouns (I don’t want to resort to appending “-man” or “-woman” to make Englishman or Frenchman). ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-from-_____-noun-vs-adjective/542455/2 "2010-06-08T18:03:25Z")
Limeys, Toblerone-munchers and cheese-eating surrender monkeys not good enough for you? Seriously, though, “Swiss” is used as a noun, but for English and French you’re stuck with Englishman, Frenchwoman etc. “Englander” is used, but only in phrases such as “little Englander” which are used pejoratively. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-from-_____-noun-vs-adjective/542455/3 "2010-06-08T18:34:05Z")
To just defend myself from any charges of being oversensitive, I don’t find Brit offensive generally. It has been used to me in times and places and ways it was offensive, though. I do find its use by Americans to be often patronizing & annoying. As for a noun, Englishman or ‘someone from England’ work pretty well. The first is even fewer syllables than American, and no one seems to think that is too long to say. If you want non gender specific, use English person/person from England. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-from-_____-noun-vs-adjective/542455/4 "2010-06-08T18:48:59Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > Seriously, though, “Swiss” is used as a noun I figured there would be regional differences on some of these. I can pretty much guarantee if I said something about “a Swiss” around here, people would say, “a Swiss what?” Where I used to live, “Korean” was both noun and adjective, but I’ve talked to people in other parts of the U.S. that know it only as an adjective. “Englishman” just feels awkward to me, especially if I’m trying to use a plural to refer to a mixed-gender group. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-from-_____-noun-vs-adjective/542455/5 "2010-06-08T19:12:12Z")
People from Cairo are Cairenes. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-from-_____-noun-vs-adjective/542455/6 "2010-06-08T19:33:33Z")
People from the land of Id are sometimes referred to as [“Idiots”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wizard_of_Id). ---
**Author:** ![PsyXe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@PsyXe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PsyXe)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-from-_____-noun-vs-adjective/542455/7 "2010-06-08T19:40:53Z")
People from Liverpool are Liverpudlians. I can never think about that fact without mentally backforming Liverpool to “Liverpuddle”. ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-from-_____-noun-vs-adjective/542455/8 "2010-06-08T19:42:31Z")
There’s always the useful “Briton” for, well, Britons. ---
**Author:** ![Electric\_Warrior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@Electric\_Warrior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electric_Warrior)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-from-_____-noun-vs-adjective/542455/9 "2010-06-08T19:42:59Z")
And there is no appropriate demonym for China or Japan. “He’s a Chinese?” No. ---
**Author:** ![Surly\_Chick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Surly\_Chick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surly_Chick)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-from-_____-noun-vs-adjective/542455/10 "2010-06-08T20:26:21Z")
I’m reading a book set in WWI and the Brits in it call french people “Frenchies.” I’m pretty sure that’s not acceptable these days… ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-from-_____-noun-vs-adjective/542455/11 "2010-06-08T20:47:45Z")
But you can say, “_the_ English”, “_the_ Chinese”, just not “_an_ English”, “_a_ Chinese”. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-from-_____-noun-vs-adjective/542455/12 "2010-06-08T21:23:28Z")
> [@PsyXe](#): > > People from Liverpool are… Scousers ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-from-_____-noun-vs-adjective/542455/13 "2010-06-08T22:41:55Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > But you can say, “_the_ English”, “_the_ Chinese”, just not “_an_ English”, “_a_ Chinese”. That is helpful when speaking of the people as a whole, but “I saw the Chinese yesterday” has a rather different implication than “I saw a Chinese person yesterday.” ---
**Author:** ![PsyXe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@PsyXe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PsyXe)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2010, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-from-_____-noun-vs-adjective/542455/14 "2010-06-09T17:56:19Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > Scousers 😃 What other really weird “people from” terms are there? In the olden days when the Transvaal was a province, we were called “vaalies” and universally hated. Now I live in Gauteng, and we’re less universally called “gauties” - or maybe it’s just the people I know - and hated just as much. ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2010, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-from-_____-noun-vs-adjective/542455/15 "2010-06-09T18:03:56Z")
Nigeriens are people from Niger. Nigerians are people from Nigeria. Nigg. . . .are . . . Nevermind. ---
**Author:** ![Emily\_Litella](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emily_litella/32/3370_2.png) [@Emily\_Litella](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emily_Litella)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2010, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-from-_____-noun-vs-adjective/542455/16 "2010-06-09T18:04:24Z")
I always wondered what they called the people who live in Coxsackie, New York. ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2010, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-from-_____-noun-vs-adjective/542455/17 "2010-06-09T20:12:06Z")
> [@PsyXe](#): > > What other really weird “people from” terms are there? Geordies (from Newcastle)? Less weird, but Brummies from Birmingham (that’s the one where you don’t pronounce the “h”). **amarone** A Brit, and not offended by it. And a Tyke. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2010, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-from-_____-noun-vs-adjective/542455/18 "2010-06-09T20:58:21Z")
> [@descamisado](#): > > Nigeriens are people from Niger. > > Nigerians are people from Nigeria. > > Nigg. . . .are . . . Nevermind. In the spirit of skirting too close to the edge like this, threads like this one always take me to the “person from Massachusetts = Masshole” meme I only first heard about when I started living on the East Coast as an adult…don’t mean to offend, and I certainly don’t use this - it just gave me a chuckle when I first heard it… (hijack - by the way **Descamisado** , I dig the band [BR 549](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tf_NIBIJs8), whom I assume you are referring to in your title - great old school country with some wonderful pedal steel work…) ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2010, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-from-_____-noun-vs-adjective/542455/19 "2010-06-09T21:07:58Z")
> [@Emily\_Litella](#): > > I always wondered what they called the people who live in Coxsackie, New York. Probably not New Yorkers. Truth be told, calling someone a New Yorker always makes me think there must be some activity called “New Yorking,” and what it might be. It might be anything, really, as New Yorkers are not so much human beings as human _doings_. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2010, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-from-_____-noun-vs-adjective/542455/20 "2010-06-09T21:14:03Z")
> [@amarone](#): > > Geordies (from Newcastle)? Not exclusively Newcastle (those would be Novocastrians) – Geordies are generally reckoned to come from Tyneside and the surrounding area. Not too broad an area though, we prefer not to be confused with Mackems, Smoggies and Monkey Hangers (and vice versa). Not bothered by Brit, though – I’ll admit I’ve occasionally inferred a bit of an attitude behind its use by some Americans, but it’s the attitude that seems offensive, not the epithet. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-from-_____-noun-vs-adjective/542455.md?page=2)