# What was the derogatory name for americans in each war? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 27, 2014, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-derogatory-name-for-americans-in-each-war/679839 "2014-01-27T13:31:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-derogatory-name-for-americans-in-each-war/679839/21 "2014-01-28T01:26:23Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#): > > In WWI, the were often The Hun. My father, who fought in the British army in WWII told me the Germans were most often the Hun to them then, too. I told him that in most stories, movies etc. I had seen about the war, the allied forces usually referred to the Germans as Jerries, but he seemed to think that in fact that was not in very common use at the time. Possibly “Jerries” was more an American thing. On [Dad’s Army](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dad%27s_Army), Mainwaring uses both “the Hun” and “Jerry” (used as a sort of mass noun), but I don’t know how authentic that is. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-derogatory-name-for-americans-in-each-war/679839/22 "2014-01-28T01:27:57Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > (back when the dictionary did not include the Spanish equivalent of “cunt”). Which is? In the interest of multicultural exchange and understanding. ---
**Author:** ![Snnipe\_70E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@Snnipe\_70E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snnipe_70E)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-derogatory-name-for-americans-in-each-war/679839/23 "2014-01-28T02:07:27Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > No cite, but I read once that they could also smell the Americans by their shit. The smell of digested pepperoni pizza and other exotica was unmistakeable to those whose diet consisted, in large part, of rice. I have a friend who tells the story of receiving a care package in the field. He mad the mistake of opening it up and sharing some of the meats with his fellow grunts. The emeny found them because of the smell. Last time he opened a care package in the field. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-derogatory-name-for-americans-in-each-war/679839/24 "2014-01-28T03:11:27Z")
> [@Gymnopithys](#): > > Les Allemands c’était _Les Boches_ (apocope for _Alboches_). It’s very derogatory. They were the enemy. My grandfather was an American veteran of the First World War who worked in France as a driver. When I was young, I read a letter he wrote to my grandmother in which he referred to [“The Bosch”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terms_used_for_Germans#Boche). I thought he was talking about spark plugs at first. It didn’t help that he was a horrible speller. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-derogatory-name-for-americans-in-each-war/679839/25 "2014-01-28T04:02:25Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > Which is? In the interest of multicultural exchange and understanding. In a strictly “four letter word meaning vagina” sense, _coño_. You wouldn’t call a woman a _coño_. Mid-20th century, Camilo José Cela caused an enormous scandal both because his characters used four letter words and because he insisted in that they were perfectly fine words and should be in the dictionary. He claimed that dictionaries and novels should reflect life, not autoclave it. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-derogatory-name-for-americans-in-each-war/679839/26 "2014-01-28T04:15:11Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > But originated in Mexico, what I have seen about that war is all from Spain; At least according to Wiki, [_gringo_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gringo) originated in Spain, the first reference being in 1786. > [@](#): > > The word gringo was first recorded in the Diccionario castellano con las voces de Ciencias y Artes y sus correspondientes en las 3 lenguas francesa, latina e italiana (Castilian Dictionary including the Words of the Sciences and the Arts, and their Correspondents in 3 Languages: the French, the Latin, and the Italian, 1786), by Terreros y Pando, wherein it is defined as: > > _Gringos llaman en Málaga a los extranjeros que tienen cierta especie de acento, que los priva de una locución fácil y natural Castellana; y en Madrid dan el mismo nombre con particularidad a los irlandeses._ However, it may have first become popular as a term for Americans in Mexico during the Texan rebellion and Mexican-American War. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-derogatory-name-for-americans-in-each-war/679839/27 "2014-01-28T04:44:58Z")
OK then, but in that case, it changed meaning completely and it went from meaning “mumbling foreigner” to “American” in Mexico; whether the Spanish soldiers in Cuba used either meaning to speak about the Americans or not, or even the word itself, I have no evidence. Nowadays you wouldn’t refer to a Frenchman as a _gringo_ any more than you’d call a leftist _gabacho_. For those who don’t speakee Spanish, the italicized paragraph in **Colibri** ’s\* post means: In Malaga they call gringo those foreigners having a certain accent which prevents them from pronouncing Spanish natural and easily; in Madrid they use this same word, mainly for Irishmen. Since Madrid is one of those places where “nobody was born there”, and since most of the people who move there hail from parts further South, it is very common to have words or pronunciations whose distribution “jumps” from somewhere in the South (like Malaga) to Madrid. - Bad mod! Bad mod! [Threatens Colibri with a rolled-up newspaper] ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-derogatory-name-for-americans-in-each-war/679839/28 "2014-01-28T05:29:12Z")
The North Koreans seem fond of terms like ‘dogs’ or ‘imperialist bastards’ in contemporary propaganda. I have no idea what they were called during the Korean war. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-derogatory-name-for-americans-in-each-war/679839/29 "2014-01-28T05:59:42Z")
> [@Snnipe\_70E](#): > > I have a friend who tells the story of receiving a care package in the field. He mad the mistake of opening it up and sharing some of the meats with his fellow grunts. The emeny found them because of the smell. [sup][sup](emphasis mine)[/sup][/sup] How exactly was this determined? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-derogatory-name-for-americans-in-each-war/679839/30 "2014-01-28T13:32:43Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > The British called the French ‘Frogs’ or Crapaud (toad) from the Napoleonic wars on. We have been (more recently I think) Le Rosbif. And \<\<_les goddams_\>\> dates from the Hundred Years’ War. ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-derogatory-name-for-americans-in-each-war/679839/31 "2014-01-28T17:45:23Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > In WWII, the Germans used these: > American: Ami, Yankee > British: Tommy, Inselaffen (Island monkeys) > French: Franzmann > Russians: Ivan, Russki, Hiwi, Bolschewiken (German for “bolshevik”) > Italians: Itaker (-ak is a derogatory ending, as in Polak) > Poles: Polak > Canadians - Kanaken > > The Japanese used these: > Butter-kusai (stinks like butter) referred to all foreigners > Kichiku Beihei “dirty American devil” Impressive list, but to quibble Hiwi wasn’t a term used by the Germans to refer to their Russian enemies and wasn’t really derogatory. Hiwi is an abbreviation of Hilfswilliger, “voluntary assistant” and was used to refer to former Russian POWs serving as auxiliary troops in the German military. Considering that the Germans were murdering Soviet POWs by starvation, take the “voluntary” part of the abbreviation with a grain of salt. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-derogatory-name-for-americans-in-each-war/679839/32 "2014-01-28T18:01:52Z")
> [@sidecar\_jon](#): > > as well as “septics…” rhyming slang in the classic _Welcome to Woop Woop_, the girl refers to her American boyfriend using the abbreviated form “seppo”. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-derogatory-name-for-americans-in-each-war/679839/33 "2014-01-28T18:03:04Z")
So, the only \*derisive \*nickname comes from our own closest allies. Have we actually been on the right side in any war? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-derogatory-name-for-americans-in-each-war/679839/34 "2014-01-28T18:57:12Z")
Mostly the Germans looked upon us as deluded pawns, led into war by the Brits and the Jews. During WWI, they were right- at least the British part. Wilson was a Anglophile, the British drummed up some over-the top propaganda, the German Diplomatic service were bumblers- and \*viola \*- Yanks in The Great War. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-derogatory-name-for-americans-in-each-war/679839/35 "2014-01-28T19:40:13Z")
The use of “Hun” or “the Huns” as a derogatory reference to Germans originates with the Kaiser himself, interestingly. In 1900, he shocked European sensibilities with the infamous “Hun Speech.” > [@](#): > > "Should you encounter the enemy, he will be defeated! No quarter will be given! Prisoners will not be taken! Whoever falls into your hands is forfeited. Just as a thousand years ago the Huns under their King Attila made a name for themselves, one that even today makes them seem mighty in history and legend, may the name German be affirmed by you in such a way in China that no Chinese will ever again dare to look cross-eyed at a German.” From here: [GHDI - Document](http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=755) Other countries were prepared to treat the Chinese with equivalent savagery, but the idea that someone would admit it – let alone boast about it – was distasteful. A crowned monarch, no less! As the tensions that would lead to the Great War mounted over the next decade, the British remembered this speech and would apply the term as soon as war broke out. Although the Allies would shamelessly milk it for propaganda, the German occupation of Belgium was unusually brutal for European-on-European violence by the standards of the day, and quickly cemented the “Hun” image in the public mind. ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-derogatory-name-for-americans-in-each-war/679839/36 "2014-01-28T19:50:42Z")
> [@JKilez](#): > > Based on working with people in the UK, I can tell you “Yank” is often used derisively or dismissively (and they are our ally). Yep… and I can confirm this first hand after having an argument with a Brit. He called me a Yank to which my reaction was “That’s it? That’s all you got?” I don’t think there is even one American who is offended by being called a Yank. ---
**Author:** ![sidecar\_jon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@sidecar\_jon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sidecar_jon)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-derogatory-name-for-americans-in-each-war/679839/37 "2014-01-28T20:40:46Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > I believe I was a “running dog lackey of the imperialist” something or others. Oh, and a “roundeye” too. > > Was calling a German a “Jerry” that derogatory? Sort of oddly affectionate. My mum when she was a little girl used to ask the Jerries at the bottom of the garden for cheese. German POW’s used to cut wood in the field by her home, resplendent in grey with big yellow squares on their backs (“to make 'em easier to shoot if they run away” As the guard said). Those more involved in fighting that i have talked to have referred to Germans, as in one Bomber crew “only good German was a dead German”…and Infantry guy " the Germans hit us hard…" etc…no affection there. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-derogatory-name-for-americans-in-each-war/679839/38 "2014-01-28T20:58:34Z")
> [@Lukeinva](#): > > I don’t think there is even one American who is offended by being called a Yank. I dunno…have you tried it on a Confederate re-enactor? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-derogatory-name-for-americans-in-each-war/679839/39 "2014-01-28T23:39:49Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > I dunno…have you tried it on a Confederate re-enactor? Or anyone born south of the Mason-dixon line? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-derogatory-name-for-americans-in-each-war/679839/40 "2014-01-29T01:05:46Z")
> [@Lukeinva](#): > > I don’t think there is even one American who is offended by being called a Yank. Actually, I’ve met a couple Texans who find it so… Probably some Civil War sympathizer types, too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-derogatory-name-for-americans-in-each-war/679839.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-derogatory-name-for-americans-in-each-war/679839.md?page=3)