This is not a question designed to be racist, but I just have no idea what this name means, nor how it is considered an insult. I’ve heard it for years, mainly in movies and on television: kike. It’s an insult towards Jewish people.
I’ve no real experience with actual Jews because around here, there are very few. In fact, we just got our first Jewish Temple in town around 5 years ago. I worked for a Jewish manager in a store one time, but I had no idea he was Jewish until he told me. He did not sound like the usual TV version of a Jew, nor look like the Movie and TV version of one, which pretty well should indicate to you my ignorance of almost all Jews.
I was watching a Law and Order episode tonight about a racially motivated killing of a Jewish teacher. The word Kike was used as an insult and I realized that I had no idea what it meant.
What does it mean? Where did it originate? Who originated it? Is it real bad? I don’t know. Blacks hate the N word, though only when coming from another race, because they call each other it frequently, and it has a whole different meaning then. The N word, I know, is a corruption of the Niger River in Africa, apparently an area frequently used to gather slaves. So the N word is used as an insult to classify the insultee as something less than human: a slave. Ergo, a racial insult of some degree.
Without meaning any offense, without wanting to get into any nasty racial discussion and, I assure you, only wanting to know the meaning, I ask you what Kike means.
Wow. That OP was peppered with more disclaimers than a commercial for a Leeland Meyers Ear Drill (We don’t reccomend you use an ear drill, but if you want to, why not use the best?)
Ahem. Old SNL memories aside, both my dictionaries say “Origin unknown.”
The definitions were simply Usually offensive: Jew
and: Used is a disparaging term for a Jew.
These were various Websterized dictionaries. (Don’t have my OED handy. Perhaps it has more insight.)
Way back when, when Jews first started immigrating to America, and didn’t understand English, as many other people did not, signed their names/made their mark with a circle, where most other people who didn’t understand english or were illiterate, used an X. Circle, in Yiddish, is Keikl. Jews routinely used a circle, so they were Keikl’s… shortened later to Kikes.
Wow, that was pretty interesting, Turbo. Just out of curiosity, though, how did non-Yiddish speakers find out about the origins of the word? My little mind can’t seem to reconcile a Yiddish-speaking anti-Semite.
There’s another theory that says that a lot of Eastern European Jews had surnames that ended in “sky” or “ski”. So, “Kikey” or “Skiky” became derogatory nicknames for them. This got shortened to Kike. It’s just a theory, though…and the origin of the word is disputed.
If I may hijack this post for just a minute with a similar question I have had. The word “fritz.” I know this is a German name but is it also a racial slur? I have heard it in context in which it should be. I, being German, am looking to embrace this. What exactly is it and where did it come from?
From what I have heard, ‘fritz’ was a word coined/used during one of the world wars just to designate Germans, because ‘Fritz’ was a common name of the time. Like ‘Limey’ for the Brits because their sailors were smart enough to carry limes and lime juice on long voyages to prevent scurvy.
I’m still trying to figure out just what ‘genius’ decided that ‘eggplant’ for blacks could be a racial slur. That gives me a chuckle.
‘Ivan’ was a term for Russians used in WW2, because of the commonness of the name.
I have not figured out ‘wop’ or ‘dago’ for Italians.
Once or twice I’ve come across ‘papist’ as a slur against Catholics, somehow derived from ‘papal’ concerning the Pope.
The no longer applicable ‘Tory’ used in early times for Americans or by Americans is a mystery to me.
I was once called a ‘Honky’ by some black guy, before I even knew the term and laughed at him, then further confused him by asking him if he had insulted me and what did it mean. Even after I learned, I still found it funny.
I have an interesting tibit to contribute… though I haven’t researched it, and may be way off-base!
The word “gook” is used as an insult towards Asians… I noticed early in my studies of Korean that the word for Korean people is “Han-Gook Saram”, and foreigners is “Way-Gook Saram.” That got me thinking that maybe this term originated during the Korean War, with obvious roots… maybe.
As I say, I haven’t researched it, so it’s just a guess…
False etymology. As someone else has already quoted me, the Niger river is attributed to the Berber word ngher meaning river.
Nor was the Niger a source of slave gathering except in its delta area in the bight of Benin, but it wasn’t know by that name there. (I believe the Europeans called the Delta the “oil rivers” and had no knowledge they were the same as the fable “western Nile” as the Niger was described. Or just “The” with a capital T river (ngher).
Nigger derives from romance/latin root niger, meaning black. (e.g. negro etc.) I forget the precise etymology, but its clearly a racial insult. I would say its derived from slavery insofar that’s how it achieved its insulting status from probably mere descriptive origins.
I’ve heard the same (source, The Power Broker, Robert Caro), but with the added information that it was used by Jews who had been in America for years (I’m guessing mainly German Jews, many with -stein or -heim names) in relation to newer immigrants from Eastern Europe. I think the time frame involved was late 19th Century.
Hence “heimy”, “himey”, etc. Remember Jessie Jackson and the “Himeytown” incident?
Yeed is also a lesser known slur for Jews. It stems from the word “Yiddish” when Jews were sometimes called “Yids”. It also reminds me of a joke (hey, if we can’t add some humor to a thread about racial insults, why bother with the thread at all?):
Heim Yunkel was a business man in the center of town. One day, some young boys stood outside of his store and yeld “Yeed” for half an hour. When they stopped, Heim went outside and gave each boy a quarter. Perplexed, they left. They came back the next day and repeated their performance. Again, Heim came out but only gave them each a dime. This happened again on the third day with Heim giving them each a nickel. On the fourth day the boys came back and yelled “Yeed” for half an hour. When they were done, Heim Yunkel came out and apologized for not having any more money. “This type of advertizing,” he said, “I can no longer afford.” He never saw the boys again.
From earlier post: "I have not figured out ‘wop’ or ‘dago’ for Italians. "
To my knowledge, “dago” is a corruption for “Diego” meaning “James”. So it is an insult along the lines of calling and Irishman a “Mick” or a Russian “Ivan”. The question I have is: Why is “Dago” used more for Italians than for Spaniards, since “Diego” is used by both? I figure it has to do with the fact that more Italians immigrated to the U.S. in the late 19th/early 20th centuries.
“WOP” I believe does mean “without papers”. If an immigrant did not have proper papers at Ellis Island, WOP was either stamped on a paper or pinned to their shirt or something. Apparently a large number of Italians were immigrating at the time, so they were the ethnic group given the nickname. Ain’t human nature da best?
Third time’s the charm: NOIR is the French word for the color black.
Whether or not NEGRE was ever a French word describing Africans or people of African descent, I cannot say.
…
Empirical evidence: up until very recently, whites in South Carolina & Georgia slurred through the word “Negro” as something like “nigra” (short “i” & strong stress on the 1st syllable). They used “nigra” in everyday life instead of “colored” to describe black people.
Only octogenarian Carolinians & Georgians use the term today. I posit that at one time, the slurred “nigra” was wide-spread throughout the South - and that the now-widespread word “nigger” is simply a further altered form of “nigrah”.
Of course negro/negra is still used in many parts of the world and, in my experience in Brazil, doen’t have any negative connotations. One popular pop singer Daniela Mercury has refered to herself as the “mais branca negra” (whitest black). Refering to her use of predominantly african musical traditions and rhythms. And several African-Brazilians that I knew refered to themselves as a negao (big black).
Of course in the reagon I was in (Bahia) the population is predominantly of African origin. They called me loiro (fair/pale/blondie), and my complextion is darker than many americans and my hair is nearly black. So this may just be a regional thing. They may be taking pride in names which elsewhere might be an insult, so ymmv.
