Yes, minor addition, Nippon is quite correct as the name for that place, that is what they call themselves. The reason for the error is the people of Shanghai read the characters for “Nippon”, but in the Shanghai accent/dialect they pronounced the letters as “Japan”, the incorrect pronunciation spread to the English speakers around the world.
“China” is an insult to the people of the Prime Republic (at least, its an insult to the Han, as the Han ethnic group dominates the Qin ethnic group…> Xin, Sino, Chin, Chine, China ). The people of India call ALL the people “over there” Qin (or Qin-LIKE )
Never heard that one before. I’m British, but kind-of like it. It’s rather creative…
ISTR from Sven Hassel’s novels, that German troops on the Eastern Front sometimes called their Russian adversaries, “the neighbours” (in German, of course) – likely, at times when they felt a bit less pissed-off with them than usual.
“Ami” is still common in Germany to refer to Americans; it depends on the context how offensive it is, even though I’d say it is always at least slightly offensive. You’d pronounce so as to rhyme with “yummy”.
It seems that the Brits were more likely to refer to “Jerry” as a single, common name. (“Jerry is giving us hell, tonight.”) In that context, it appears to have been nothing more than a shortening of “German” and was not intended as an explicit insult.
When the Yanks showed up, they picked it up as an individual name, (much as they picked up a misunderstood meaning of commando): “The J/jerries are giving us hell, tonight.”
Reading day-to-day journals, the most common slur that I have encountered in U.S. usage seems to have been Kraut.
In WW1 the Germans called the Marines Devil Dogs, being Marines they loved and adopted it forever. I’ve read several biographies of WW2 in which the Germans were called Square Heads. In the Mexican War Texas Rangers were Los Diablo Tejanos. In The Courtship Of Miles Standish Longfellow celebrated the “mighty savage” Native American and maybe said Lo! a few too many times doing so, and “Lo” became the common derogatory name for N.A. people out West during the Indian Wars.
Los Diablos Tejanos (missing s in the original)
Jar heads, dog faces, fly boys, squids.
“Pedantic nitpicking department”: by my understanding, the “Lo !” tag actually came from the verse Essay on Man of 1734, by the English poet Alexander Pope. The author was indeed referring to Native Americans – with some sympathy, but with regret about their non-Christian world-view:
“Lo ! the poor Indian, whose untutored mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind…”
Well, that’s a pretty gross oversimplification. President Wilson really didn’t want to get involved and took a lot of heat - from Theodore Roosevelt, among others - for holding back as long as he did, even after the Lusitania was sunk by a U-boat in May 1915, killing 128 Americans. The U.S. stayed out from 1914-17, until the Zimmermann Telegram came to light.
Similarly euphemistically, Robert E. Lee was known to refer to U.S. troops during the Civil War as “those people” (“Yankees” and “bluebellies” were more common terms among his troops).
Probably apocryphal: Devil Dog - Wikipedia
Aren’t these names created by americans to describe other service members (or themselves)?
I read that “grunt” was a name the US Army game themselves in Viet Nam. Sort of a derogatory name to describe their position in the food chain, but adopted with some fondness for themselves. They could call themselves and each other grunts. I don’t know if this has any truth to it.
Boston Red Sox fans would object to being called Yanks, I’m sure.
But it’s not much of an insult if you refer to yourself by the word someone is using as an insult.
George M Cohan in 1917 wrote…
Over there, over there
Send the word, send the word over there
That the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming
The drums are rum-tumming everywhere
And we won’t come back till it’s over over there.
Over there.
I would have to disagree. The rap group NWA referred to themselves as a very famously ugly word beginning with an “N” which I’m pretty sure most black people (including NWA members) would think it’s an insult.
Or maybe I’m wrong on this one. Since i’m not a member of the black community, maybe that is a word that upsets white PC people more than blacks. Could this possibly be true?
I don’t think so either.
There is no confirmation from German sources that American Marines were called Teufel Hunden (which would be Teufelshunde if correct)
And see post 49.
The Germans were also called les Têtes carrées (the square heads).
Also, the only usage of “Kanaken” that I am aware of is as a derogatory term for Turks.
resurrected since it was cited in another thread.
Using an appellation for an individual to stand for the mass of the nation–“jerry”–was of course done in the Vietnam War–“Charlie.” (“Viet Cong”–>V.C.–>military alphabet "Victor Charlie.)
I can’t offhand think of any other proper noun use like those two in English.
Habeeb or Habib, except instead of being a name for members of a specific nation it’s used more as a generic Muslim-ish person.
A note on this one. The French weren’t using this nickname to swear at the English. The nickname referred to the way the English swore.
It has been said that:
In Europe, a Yankee is someone from the US.
In the South, a Yankee is someone from the North.
In the North, a Yankee is someone from New England.
In New England, a Yankee is someone from Vermont.
In Vermont, a Yankee is someone who eats apple pie for breakfast. With a knife.