Usually Dumb Fat Yankee Tourist does the trick
We haven’t got a generic term for Americans, or for many other nationalities for that matter. We (in extreme cases, utterly non-PC) call Germans “Moffen” (muffs). This is because the SS wore them. Might sound as innocent as Kraut, but believe me, it is FAR worse.
I’d say it just isn’t a Dutch thing to make up derogatory terms about other nationalites. There are some for the minority groups in the Netherlands, but not as widely used as the English terms I’ve been reading in this thread.
Tomndebb: good point. The Dutch weren’t a minority, so there isn’t a slur for them. Makes perfect sense! Remember, New Yorkers: if it weren’t for these blasted Limeys, you would all live in Nieuw Amsterdam now
British, limey, from the practice of feeding British seamen limes to reduce the amount of scurvy aboard ships. Later, the term was transferred from British silors to all Brits. (This almost counts as a double insult–although unintended. When James Lind discovered that the citrus fruits oranges and lemons prevented scurvy (Vitamin C was not actually isolated for another 150~ years), the Royal Navy promptly ordered its ships to stock up on limes. Limes were much cheaper, but carried only 10% of the vitamin, so that scurvy continued to ravage the men who were later “named” for the fruit.)
MULENYAM Racist slur (often shortened to “moolie”) meaning
African-American; literal translation: eggplant
also, re: Cracker, I have always heard this refered to as deriving from the whipcrackers (teamsters) who would drive the horse teams hauling forest products and turpintine harvested from the Georgia piney woods…my.02
I think I remember reading that faggot came from the English school practice of older boys using the younger boys as servants. One of their duties was bringing faggots of wood to heat the older boys rooms. This practice became known as fagging, and since these were all male schools the implication came to be that there was occasionaly more going on than household chores.
I believe you may be mistaken about this. In fact, I seem to have a vague recollection that Cecil may have done a column on this very topic. “Mc” is in fact a very common prefix in Ireland. If I remember correctly, “Mc” was originally used to indicate “son of,” while the "O’ " prefix indicated “grandson of.”
Also, regarding the origin of the term cracker, I believe it was originally applied to Southern wagon/coach drivers, who had wa reputation for liberal use of the whip on their horses. I don’t believe the term had any connection to slavery.
Interesting aside: Atlanta had a baseball farm team of some prominence years ago, kown as “The Atlanta Crackers”. Atlanta’s Negro League team, named without irony, was “The Black Crackers.”
“Mexican in the U.S., greaser, an attempt to portray Mexicans as being greasy with grime from never washing.”
I used to occasionally hear the term “greaser” used in Southern California to refer to young male Mexicans, young Chicanos, and young male Portuguese (when they weren’t referred to as “tuna chokers”) but I got the impression the term had to do with the real or apparent “greasiness” of their hair resulting from the oily hair dressings they sometimes used (e.g., Brylcreem as opposed to Vitalis). I never got the impression that “greaser” implied grime or dirt. Some support for this derivation comes from the Merriam-Webster dictionary that gives “an aggressive swaggering young white male usu. of workin-class bachground” as the third definition of “greaser.”
From reading WWII comic books, seeing WWII movies, and talking to my Gran’pappy, I always heard Germans were called Squareheads because of their WWII helmets, which looked rather square when compared to the Allies’. I don’t think this is just an accidental confusion of “Dutch” and “Deutsche.”
According to Random House’s Word of the Day site, cracker originally meant boaster or braggart. Eventually this was extended to poor white Southerners, who were considered braggarts.
I have also heard the term “greaseback” for Mexicans. perhaps it’s a play on “greaser” or “greaser” is a play on it.
Another term for Mexicans that is quite common and easily explained is “beaner”. Eitehr because they stereotypically eat lots of beans or because of their connection with migrant farm workers.
Yeah, “greaser” was certainly a reference to the “tough guys” who used Brylcreem (or axle grease) to slick back their hair in the 50’s (hence the musical and movie), but the term “greaser” for a Mexican dates to the mid-nineteenth century. References early in this century clearly link the “greasiness” of the objects of scorn to their purported personal hygiene.
Spider, the Dutch/Deutsche point was the ironic parallel that two separate groups have used terms that either overlapped or were confusing between those two nationalities. I doubt that there is any connection between nineteenth century sailors calling Dutch “squareheads” and twentieth century soldiers calling Germans “squareheads.”
Tom: “…but the term “greaser” for a Mexican dates to the mid-nineteenth century. References early in this century clearly link the “greasiness” of the objects of scorn to their purported personal hygiene.”
But what is “greasy” about Mexico or Mexicans or, for that matter, about Mexican dirt or (literally) dirty Mexicans?
If “greaser” means “dirty/unwashed person” then why weren’t some Amerindians of the Southwest called greasers by the same 19th century Gringos? Contemporary accounts seem to more often describe West Coast Amerindians as unwashed than Mexicans.
It seems to me that there must be more to the association of “greaser” with Mexicans than just dirt.
**Gook[/b, I believe, stems from the Korean war. The Korean word for “country” is “guk”, pronounced/gook/, so you have Korea,/hangook/, China,/choonggook/, and America/meegook/.
When the Korean kids saw American soldiers, they would say,
“miguk, miguk”, and the Americans picked up “gook” as an anti-Asian slur.
To my mind? Nothing. Particularly as it was applied by a group of people for whom weekly baths were a recent novelty.
However, the first several references to greaser in the OED, dating all the way back to 1849, all remark on the term being used against Mexicans for their general lack of cleanliness. Perhaps the term “greasy” passed through a brief phase of meaning general dirtiness without the connotation of oil. (Although I cannot find a citation for that usage.)
I cannot provide the logical basis for the epithet, but I would note that logic only coincidentally plays a part in creating slurs, anyway. (Note that slope is actually contradicted by a physical examination of its victims.)
It is interesting to note that words start out being very mildly derogatory and become more offensive as the group they refer to takes offense. The word quaker started out as derogatory but that religious group adopted it with pride and the word lost its offensive value.
Say any word with the right intonation and it can be offensive. I know this racist guy who loves using the term “African-American” with the most derogatory tone and it does sound offensive. The problem is not the word in itself but the connotation it is given.
wolfman mentioned banana and twinkie in reference to “whitewashed” Asians. Well, there are also “eggs” - white people who are infatuated with Asian culture/people.
I have always been mystified by the use of the word “zipperhead” in Full Metal Jacket as a slur against the Vietnamese. Why “zipperhead”? Does anyone know?
I think the word is older than that. Some sources date it to 1899, some to about 1935. I remember reading that it was what US servicemen called Filipinos shortly after the Spanish-American War. The word may be from some language of the Philippines, perhaps Vicol, according to one source.
In the book “The great Arizona Child Abduction” recently featured on CSPAN the author stated that turn of teh century mexican-americans were often considered “dirty” by their white neighbors. What the white people failed to consider was that mexican-americans of the day seldom had running water or indoor plumbing, because they were poor. Also, the mexican women often had to work outside of teh home (because they were poor) and had less time to clean and scrub their houses. In fact many of the “dirty” mexican women were employed as maids of the white women.
I’m not sure, but I always thought that referred in some way to the US practice of torching villages w/ their GI zippo lighters, called “zipping” the village. That is not a total WAG, as it seems familiar somewhere in the dark recesses of my head, but its the next best thing.
