# Why is "Jew" not a slur? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 17, 2014, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jew-not-a-slur/695782 "2014-08-17T21:40:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kaltkalt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bb73d2/32.png) [@kaltkalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaltkalt)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jew-not-a-slur/695782/1 "2014-08-17T21:40:36Z")
It seems any shortening of the name of a religious group or nationality is treated as a slur. Like “Jap” for Japanese, “Gyp” for Gypsy, etc. “Jew” sounds like a slur to me, but for whatever reason nobody seems to have a problem with it. Was it ever considered a slur? Maybe it just became acceptable over time? ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jew-not-a-slur/695782/2 "2014-08-17T21:56:07Z")
What would Jew be a shortening of? “Jewish” is the adjective derived from “Jew.” Referring to Jews as “Hebs” (short for Hebrew) is considered impolite in most circumstances. I think the answer is that the Jews fortunately had the foresight to pick a name that was already short. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jew-not-a-slur/695782/3 "2014-08-17T21:59:21Z")
“Jew” is not short for anything. “Jewish” is long for “Jew.” As a verb, i.e. “to Jew down” it is definitely considered obnoxious. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jew-not-a-slur/695782/4 "2014-08-17T21:59:57Z")
“Jew” is a slur when used in certain ways. As a verb it’s almost always a slur (e.g. to “Jew someone down”). Likewise when it’s used as an adjective (a “Jew lawyer”). The word “Jew,” when used as a noun, is not a shortened version of some other word. It’s simply the name of a member of a group of people. “Jewish” is the word “Jew” with the suffix "ish. “Jew” is the simplest term for a Jewish person. The simple answer is that words get their meanings through usage. The noun form of “Jew” could have become universally recognized as offensive, but it hasn’t. Some people do treat it that way, and go out of their way to avoid it by saying things like “Jewish person.” Most people don’t do this, and there are circumstances where hardly anyone would consider it a slur (e.g. “The Nazis murdered nearly six million Jews.”) ---
**Author:** ![Ramira](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ramira/32/344_2.png) [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jew-not-a-slur/695782/5 "2014-08-17T22:00:52Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > What would Jew be a shortening of? “Jewish” is the adjective derived from “Jew.” > > Referring to Jews as “Hebs” (short for Hebrew) is considered impolite in most circumstances. > > I think the answer is that the Jews fortunately had the foresight to pick a name that was already short. It is not of course the Jewish own name but it is derived from it - it is almost the same in Arabic and Hebrew. ---
**Author:** ![kaltkalt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bb73d2/32.png) [@kaltkalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaltkalt)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jew-not-a-slur/695782/6 "2014-08-17T22:18:34Z")
I guess it is the noun. I was thinking that Christians wouldn’t like to be called “Christs” and Muslims wouldn’t like to be called “Muzzes”. A jewish person called a “jew” seems like it should sound bad. Especially today, in our ultra-PC world where everyone wants to be a victim and claim offended status. Could jewish people insist on being called “Israelites” or something like that? ---
**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:** [August 17, 2014, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jew-not-a-slur/695782/7 "2014-08-17T22:27:32Z")
The thing is, calling a Christian a “Christ” is altering the name. “Jew” is the proper name of a Jew in English. It just happens to be a short name to start with. It’s not offensive. Calling Jews “Israelite” would be a problem because, first of all, not all Jews are Israelis and not even all Jews view modern Israel in a positive light. It’s less accurate than “Jew”. Bottom line - “Jew” is not offensive (outside of previously mentioned limited contexts) and it is the proper word to use. ---
**Author:** ![Ramira](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ramira/32/344_2.png) [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jew-not-a-slur/695782/8 "2014-08-17T22:29:28Z")
> [@kaltkalt](#): > > I guess it is the noun. I was thinking that Christians wouldn’t like to be called “Christs” and Muslims wouldn’t like to be called “Muzzes”. as a muslim all I can say is that it would sound very strange in english. Unless it came with the intent to be insulting it would not be. There are european muslims whose first name is Muslim (yes it is a name) and they shorten it to Slim to be cool among the anglophones. > [@](#): > > Especially today, in our ultra-PC world where everyone wants to be a victim and claim offended status. It seems to me that the original question has some other motivations in reality. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jew-not-a-slur/695782/9 "2014-08-17T22:30:59Z")
I don’t mind being called a Jew - it׳s what I am. In fact, “Jewish person” actually annoys me a bit. Seems redundant, you know? ---
**Author:** ![Ramira](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ramira/32/344_2.png) [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jew-not-a-slur/695782/10 "2014-08-17T22:33:34Z")
But if we shorten it to call you a _ **J** _, can you be offended for him? ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jew-not-a-slur/695782/11 "2014-08-17T23:11:38Z")
TVTropes of all things has some [commentary](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/Judaism): [QUOTE=TVTropes] It is considered slightly off-color to call someone “a Jew.” Why, exactly, is tricky, and boils down to “it just sounds rude.” Maybe it’s just that so many have said that with a harsh tone. It has been used as an insult to indicate that negative Jewish stereotypes apply; instead of saying “you are so greedy,” some people still say, “you’re such a Jew.” It might also be that it implies that being Jewish is a choice. It’s a bit more common to hear someone described as “Jewish,” rather than “a Jew.” The word “Jews,” oddly, isn’t as bad. You don’t have to go crazy with political correctness and replace every occurrence of “Jews” with “the Jewish People,” but if referring to a group it’d be better to say “they are all Jewish” instead of “they are all Jews.” There’s a bit of N-Word Privileges, too. Jewish kids go around saying they have to go to “Jew school,” and “Jew camp,” but unless you’re Jewish, then it’s “Hebrew/Saturday/Sunday School” or “Jewish/Hebrew/Torah camp.” This has been taken to the extreme in the Russian language. By the early XX century the word “Zhid/Żyd” that means “Jew” in most Slavic languages (just like the English word, it is derived from the Hebrew word “Yehudi”) has become so offensive in Russian that it is now used exclusively as a pejorative, on the same level of offensiveness as “Kike”. The PC substitute for “Zhid” is “Yevrey”, which means “Hebrew”. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jew-not-a-slur/695782/12 "2014-08-17T23:15:02Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > The simple answer is that words get their meanings through usage. Maybe even more relevant here is that words also get their connotations from usage. ---
**Author:** ![Ramira](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ramira/32/344_2.png) [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jew-not-a-slur/695782/13 "2014-08-17T23:15:16Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > In fact, “Jewish person” actually annoys me a bit. Seems redundant, you know? question, in arabic to say arab person (insan arabi) sounds strange, as if it is making a distance from arab. Is this the same feeling in Hebrew? ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jew-not-a-slur/695782/14 "2014-08-17T23:31:27Z")
It’s not about shortening the word. The slur for one-syllable Poles is two syllables. Words come into general usage in formal language, and when another word (similar or dissimilar) is coined as a less formal expression for a demographic, that word becomes widely recognized as a slur because it more widely used by people who are not intelligent or articulate or respectful enough to use the formal word. A word becomes a slur when it is recognized that the intent of the word is to impart a lower level of dignity to a group than would be implied by the form formal word. Calling a Jew a Jew does not do that. ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jew-not-a-slur/695782/15 "2014-08-17T23:35:06Z")
It depends on how you say it: [http://www.cc.com/video-clips/wzsdq0/stand-up-louis-ck--uncensored----jew--is-a-funny-word](http://www.cc.com/video-clips/wzsdq0/stand-up-louis-ck--uncensored----jew--is-a-funny-word) ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2014, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jew-not-a-slur/695782/16 "2014-08-18T00:21:21Z")
Of course it takes more than shortening the word to make it a slur. Unless “Swede” is a slur now too, which wouldn’t surprise me actually. The one that really caught me off guard was “midget”. My whole life it was a neutral term, then suddenly it’s an awful slur. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2014, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jew-not-a-slur/695782/17 "2014-08-18T00:23:30Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > Of course it takes more than shortening the word to make it a slur. Unless “Swede” is a slur now too, which wouldn’t surprise me actually. > > The one that really caught me off guard was “midget”. My whole life it was a neutral term, then suddenly it’s an awful slur. Same with “Finn”. ---
**Author:** ![DingoelGringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@DingoelGringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DingoelGringo)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2014, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jew-not-a-slur/695782/18 "2014-08-18T00:25:08Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I don’t mind being called a Jew - it׳s what I am. In fact, “Jewish person” actually annoys me a bit. Seems redundant, you know? Exactly the way I feel. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2014, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jew-not-a-slur/695782/19 "2014-08-18T00:38:54Z")
Generally, I find “Jew” inoffensive, _depending on the context_. **Ramira** , just to make sure I have this straight, Islam is the name of the religion and Muslim is the name for the people who follow Islam? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2014, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jew-not-a-slur/695782/20 "2014-08-18T01:14:31Z")
The “slur” aspect dates to a time when any non-Jew saying that a person was “a Jew” would almost certainly be derogatory. You didn’t say “he’s a Jew” to me nice. You said it to explain that he was a person “not like us”. Now, however, in many parts of the world non-Jews aren’t automatically anti-semitic. So it depends on who says it and what that person means. If, for example, my mother pointed out that someone was “a Jew” she was not using the term neutrally. It was meant as a slur. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-jew-not-a-slur/695782.md?page=2)