# What's a person from Switzerland called? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 23, 2006, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-person-from-switzerland-called/361845 "2006-06-23T08:46:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-person-from-switzerland-called/361845/1 "2006-06-23T08:46:33Z")
A person from Sweden is a Swede, a person from Finland is a Finn. What’s a person from Switzerland? ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-person-from-switzerland-called/361845/2 "2006-06-23T09:04:04Z")
Swiss. ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-person-from-switzerland-called/361845/3 "2006-06-23T09:13:35Z")
As in “a Swiss” or “he/she’s Swiss”. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-person-from-switzerland-called/361845/4 "2006-06-23T09:48:17Z")
I’ve never encountered “Swiss” as a noun, only an adjective. Do people really say “a Swiss?” ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-person-from-switzerland-called/361845/5 "2006-06-23T10:01:11Z")
My husband used to live with a Swiss guy, and he used it as a noun all the time. It does sound odd, but apparently it’s perfectly correct. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-person-from-switzerland-called/361845/6 "2006-06-23T11:30:50Z")
There is a word in English for a Swiss person, a _Switzer_,; although you won’t see it used much now, it is in the OED. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-person-from-switzerland-called/361845/7 "2006-06-23T11:48:33Z")
My understanding is that “a Swiss” is correct, although I haven’t heard it. At one place I went to school there was a girl from Switzerland. She was, inevitably, called “Swiss Miss”. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-person-from-switzerland-called/361845/8 "2006-06-23T11:55:11Z")
[QUOTE=friedo] I’ve never encountered “Swiss” as a noun, only an adjective. Do people really say “a Swiss?” [/QUOTE] Sure they do. You must have heard it. Everyone has. Q: How do you make a swiss roll? A: Push him down a hill. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-person-from-switzerland-called/361845/9 "2006-06-23T12:46:26Z")
Lucky. It’s a beautiful country with relatively little ethnic unrest and few social ills, and being in central Europe you can reach a dozen interesting and different places with a couple of hours travel. Excellent railroads and, IIRC, all power is nonpolluting hydroelectric. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-person-from-switzerland-called/361845/10 "2006-06-23T13:09:44Z")
[QUOTE=Spectre of Pithecanthropus] Lucky. It’s a beautiful country with relatively little ethnic unrest and few social ills, and being in central Europe you can reach a dozen interesting and different places with a couple of hours travel. Excellent railroads and, IIRC, all power is nonpolluting hydroelectric. [/QUOTE] “Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.” Harry Lime in [The Third Man](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041959/quotes) ---
**Author:** ![mkl12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@mkl12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mkl12)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-person-from-switzerland-called/361845/11 "2006-06-23T14:05:18Z")
[QUOTE=aldiboronti] “Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.” Harry Lime in [The Third Man](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041959/quotes) [/QUOTE] Not even that: the cuckoo clock is from the Black Forest, in Germany. But the Swiss do make great (non cuckoo-) clocks and and watches. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-person-from-switzerland-called/361845/12 "2006-06-23T14:35:02Z")
Wasn’t Vienna in Switzerland at one time? Seems like Vienna’s responsible for more than little sausages. And to the OP: A person from Switzerland is called “a foreigner.” ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-person-from-switzerland-called/361845/13 "2006-06-23T14:44:44Z")
I don’t think Vienna was ever a part of the Swiss Federation, although it was the Congress of Vienna in 1815 that re-established Swiss independence. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-person-from-switzerland-called/361845/14 "2006-06-23T15:05:03Z")
Why single out Switzerland? What’s a person from England called? China? ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-person-from-switzerland-called/361845/15 "2006-06-23T15:09:51Z")
Yeah…but “Swissman” just doesn’t sound right. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-person-from-switzerland-called/361845/16 "2006-06-23T15:11:51Z")
> [@](#): > > Why single out Switzerland? What’s a person from England called? China? Little-known fact: _All_ of these people are called “Swiss”. Oh, wait. For a moment I thought we were in the “Lie to Me” thread. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-person-from-switzerland-called/361845/17 "2006-06-23T16:59:02Z")
[QUOTE=Inigo Montoya] Wasn’t Vienna in Switzerland at one time? [/QUOTE] **No.** Swiss is the correct term for a swiss person: in German Schweitzer, in french Suisse, in Italian Svizzero. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-person-from-switzerland-called/361845/18 "2006-06-23T17:06:25Z")
[QUOTE=Terminus Est] Why single out Switzerland? What’s a person from England called? China? [/QUOTE] An Englishman and a Chinaman, respectively. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-person-from-switzerland-called/361845/19 "2006-06-23T17:08:23Z")
OK, what do you call someone from Togo? ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-person-from-switzerland-called/361845/20 "2006-06-23T17:08:32Z")
And if you want to see what a typical Swiss looks like, take a gander here: [http://www.myswitzerland.com/html/movies/wm/](http://www.myswitzerland.com/html/movies/wm/) (the ladies especially will be interested - yes, Swiss men will be glad to welcome you to their country - don’t worry, it’s work safe. I should also mention that I’m Swiss, and, therefore, of course look like the guys in those pictures) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-person-from-switzerland-called/361845.md?page=2)