In recent times, most usage of the term that i have come across has been somewhat ironic, along the lines of:
“Well, you know that the TSA is mainly going to be concerned with searching the swarthy characters who are trying to get on planes” (spoken by someone opposed to the new search procedures).
I think i’ve been put off the term for life by one incident. Ann Coulter came to speak at my university about 18 months ago, and much of her speech was devoted to the necessity of racial profiling. She used the term “swarthy” at least a dozen times to refer to the type of people that we need to watch out for. That’s enough to put anyone off, IMO.
Swarthy people on airplanes? I guess I’d be worried about pirates and the Goldblum/BrundleFly too. But, being of Sicilian descent, maybe they would think I was one of them. You know, olive skin, classic good looks, yeah, that’s the ticket.
Aarrr avast there. We be takin this ship. Heave to ya swarthy dogs. Aarrr.
Nah, wouldn’t Coultery be descriptive of someone resembling a horse in a blonde wig? With an attitude problem?
I’m olive-skinned, with dark hair and eyes, and don’t really find the swarthy thing offensive…but I’ve associated it more with 19th century novels where dodgy men who stow away on ships tended to be referred to as swarthy.
I suppose any negative connotation comes from when they used to see olive skin as a bad thing in WASPland, as it connotes having to work in the sun and therefore being “working-class” (the horror!) Or being of non-Anglo-Celtic ancestry :eek: I see the term as vaguely humorous in this day and age, because it implies the person using it is majorly ignorant when it comes to knowledge of other parts of the world.
So apparently it’s yet another word we have to cross off because some people use it as a euphemism? I’ll pass. There’s nothing wrong with the word, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone use it seriously. Ann Coulter would count, but with an asterisk.
On chat one night, some one decribed a woman as swarthy and another chatter remarked about it, saying eww. Apparently, she thought it meant sweaty. All night she was teased.
I worked at a newspaper in a city with a high concentration of Middle Eastern people . In the 80s we had a police reporter-- an old-school journalist with a trench coat and fedora and a bottle of gin in his desk-- who, when compiling the weekly police reports would use “swarthy” as code word for Arabic. As in, “Police picked up a swarthy man in the east end carrying a billy club and an ounce of hashish on Monday.”
But when he died, so did the use of “swarthy” in the police blotter. I always kinda liked it, but apparently the publisher did not.
The last few times I’ve heard the word, it’s been as a compliment. For example, I saw something on TV a while ago and they mentioned John Stamos and mentioned something about his “…swarthy good looks…”
I think it is an archaic term nowadays. H.P. Lovecraft used it, as in “a section town where swarthy men and Orientals met to discuss matters of eldritch horror.” He WAS a bigot and had a problem with swarthy men and Orientals, in fact, just about everyone who wasn’t a pasty-faced New Englander. so, whatchagonna do?
Huh. I wonder if swarthy was code for Jewish back in Lovecraft’s generation. It’s interesting that so many of us also think “hairy” and seems to consider swarthy a male descriptor when the definition (as presented by dictonary.com) says nothing about either of those.
This pasty-faced whiteboy finds it less offensive than “pasty-faced”, and I got no problem with the latter term. Whereas “pasty” has negative connotations built into the word, “swarthy” doesn’t. Note also that modern dictionaries are pretty good about having usage notes when words are problematic (look up “boy” at www.dictionary.com for two examples), but I’m not finding usage notes for “swarthy.”
My guess is that the woman objecting had only heard the word used in negative contexts by racists, and was unaware that plenty of folks use it without intending or hearing any negative connotations.
I wouldn’t say it was necessarily racist, but I can’t recall ever seeing it used as a compliment in the way that “olive-skinned” or “dark” often are. It always seems to have a connotation that is on the negative side.
Hmmm… Swarthy is a varient of swart, and according to Merriam-Webster:
Main Entry: **swart **
Pronunciation: 'swort
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English sweart; akin to Old High German swarz black, Latin sordes dirt
So there’s definitely a historical precedence for it meaning “black,” rather than “Mediterranean” or “Arabic,” and not in a nice sense, either.
Also of note, then, is that the word “sordid” is related. Sorry - Word Geek, here!
And so he was called on more than one occasion by a particularly NON-swarthy Major. I love the word and use it whenever I’m not at work. There are times when any reference to skin tone as a descriptor is inappropriate–settling auto claims is among them. But in casual conversation I don’t think twice–and I’m usually pretty non-offensive.
