# Words I didn't realize were pejorative until later in life **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 22, 2024, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604 "2024-07-22T13:00:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2024, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/41 "2024-07-22T17:43:23Z")
OK – so the word itself isn’t “eggplant”, but a version of the Italian word for eggplant. I think that’s disconnected enough that I can keep using “eggplant”. Which is the only word for it that most people around here are going to recognize. ETA: I recognize “aubergine”, but most of my customers won’t. ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2024, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/42 "2024-07-22T17:43:46Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I think “gypsy” became synonymous “thief” among non-travelers long ago. I’m sure that the honest folk among them got tired of being lumped in with the bad apples and made a concerted effort to make themselves known by a less pejorative term. My own impression growing up was that the word referred to a hippie-ish free-spirited wanderer. In the first _Bourne_ movie, Franka Potente’s character is referred to by government agents as such without any racial animus, and she’s not, as far as I can tell, meant to be Romani (the actress is German; her Italian last name comes from a great-grandfather). > [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > I learned on this board not so long ago that the terms _Oriental_ and _Asian_ are better avoided. I found the explanation unconvincing, but language is seldom logical. My first week of Japanese class in uni (1991), was when I learned from my professor that “Asian” was the preferred term, as she put it, because “the Orient” conjures up old exotic stereotypes. I’m fine with losing the word, as I doubt I ever used it outside of reading the names of Chinese restaurants. Fairly certain that most understand that now: in _True Romance_, Patricia Arquette’s character refers to Sonny Chiba as “the Oriental” and it seems part and parcel with Tarantino’s general use of racial slurs as class markers. > [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > But the Southern Gypsies call themselves _gitanos_ in Spain are are not part of the Sinti or the Roma subgroups. Calling them so would be erroneous. I’m certainly not going to tell the Gipsy Kings (mostly Catalans of gitano ancestry, who sing in Gitane and Spanish) that they should change their name. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2024, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/43 "2024-07-22T17:45:10Z")
> [@veryfrank](#): > > True Romance Speaking of and eggplants, [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/roeKtHFlxYI/hqdefault.jpg "True Romance: Best Movie Scene of All Time: Eggplant vs the Cantaloupe") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roeKtHFlxYI&t=245) ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2024, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/44 "2024-07-22T17:49:51Z")
When I was a kid, I was out in the yard with my brother one day and I called him a jerk-off. My grandma hustled right out there and told me to go in the house. “Why, what’d I do?” “You said jerk-off. Do you know what that means?” “Yeah, it means he’s a big stupid jerk!” “Don’t say that word! It means _masturbation_.” “What’s masturbation?” “…Go in the damn house!” ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2024, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/45 "2024-07-22T17:52:06Z")
> [@veryfrank](#): > > I’m certainly not going to tell the Gipsy Kings […] that they should change their name. Told you that way was fraught with landmines, but what I wrote is that the terms Sinti or Roma are the wrong ones for a Spanish Gipsy, not that the Gipsy Kings are badly named or translated. Gitano (ES) → Gipsy (EN), correct translation. Gitano (ES) =/= Sinti und Roma (DE) not equivalent. ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2024, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/46 "2024-07-22T17:54:42Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > Told you that way was fraught with landmines, but what I wrote is that the terms Sinti or Roma are the wrong ones for a Spanish Gipsy, not that the Gipsy Kings are badly named or translated. Gitano (ES) → Gipsy (EN), correct translation. Gitano (ES) =/= Sinti und Roma (DE) not equivalent. Oh, I understand that, but I’m sure I’ve seen _someone somewhere_ complain about the name. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2024, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/47 "2024-07-22T17:59:13Z")
Used as an emoji 🍆 means penis. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2024, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/48 "2024-07-22T18:01:55Z")
In Roald Dahl’s _Matilda_, one of the title character’s classmates is named “Bruce Bogtrotter.” I didn’t learn until well into adulthood that his last name is an anti-Irish slur. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2024, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/49 "2024-07-22T18:06:11Z")
I didn’t know some Inuit consider the term “Eskimo” offensive until a few years ago. (For reference I am in my late 40s in New England.) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2024, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/50 "2024-07-22T18:22:51Z")
Yeah, “gollywog” means nothing to me, and “pollywog” is the title of a Stranger Things episode in season 2 (which we coincidentally rewatched yesterday.) ---
**Author:** ![teelabrown](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teelabrown/32/8412_2.png) [@teelabrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teelabrown)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2024, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/51 "2024-07-22T18:26:38Z")
I was under the impression (probably because it was a phrase copied down by the English professor in the old movie _Ball of Fire_) that jerk was from the phrase “just a jerk”, meaning a guy was a nobody with a bottom of the barrel job. Just a soda jerk, in other words. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2024, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/52 "2024-07-22T18:28:16Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > I’ve heard of “pud” (rhymes with “dud”) in reference to male genitalia (a limerick I once read refers to “pulling your pud”). > > “Pud” as someone mentioned upthread would seem to be short for “Puddin” (pudding). Rhymes with “good”. Very different word! Continuing the “pud” discussion, the term was a common euphemism for a teenage boy’s favorite body part during my youth in late-70s northeast Ohio. But only in the context of masturbation; you’d snicker that So-and-so was in the bathroom pulling his pud, for example, but it would sound odd to say you got your pud caught in your zipper, or tell someone to “suck my pud”. I think this is supported by a scene from _The Right Stuff_, when a bartender shoots down a pair of arrogant fighter pilots: “Round here, there are two kinds of pilots: the hot pilots who fly the hot planes, and the pudknockers who fly everything else. Now, what do you two _pudknockers_ want to drink?” For the other derivation, in one of his vet stories James Herriot mentioned his wife’s “Yorkshire pud”, explicitly referring to the food. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2024, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/53 "2024-07-22T18:31:40Z")
Yeah, “jerk-off” is slang for masturbation for obvious reasons. Calling someone a jerk has nothing to do with masturbation, that idea is so bizarre I am not sure if that was a whoosh or if that poster was actually being serious. 🤨 ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2024, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/54 "2024-07-22T18:49:25Z")
"… and seven… ago …, a … in , and … to the… that …are … Now… are … in a …, …, or any… so …and so …, can … are … on a … of … have … to … a … of …, as a …for … here …that … It is … and … But, in a … can … can… can …this … The … and … here, have … it, far … to … The … will …what … here, but it can … what … did … It is for …, to be … here to the … which … here have thus … It is … for …to be here… to the …that from … take … that … for which … the … of …that … here … that …have …that this … have a …and that …of the … the … for the … from the …" ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2024, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/55 "2024-07-22T18:51:00Z")
Debussy’s _Golliwog’s Cakewalk_ was the first time I encountered “golliwog.” I still haven’t figured out quite what it meant back then or what it means now, but I don’t use the word. I try to remember this,“You know what they say about opinions. Everybody has one, but you don’t have to be one.” ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2024, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/56 "2024-07-22T18:55:59Z")
re: gypsy > **[Who are the Gypsies?](https://www.straightdope.com/21344132/who-are-the-gypsies)** > > A STAFF REPORT FROM THE STRAIGHT DOPE SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2024, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/57 "2024-07-22T19:42:18Z")
Moderating: > [@Gatopescado](#): > > "… and seven… ago …, a … in , and … to the… that …are … > > Now… are … in a …, …, or any… so …and so …, can … are … on a … of … have … to … a … of …, as a …for … here …that … It is … and … > > But, in a … can … can… can …this … The … and … here, have … it, far … to … The … will …what … here, but it can … what … did … It is for …, to be … here to the … which … here have thus … It is … for …to be here… to the …that from … take … that … for which … the … of …that … here … that …have …that this … have a …and that …of the … the … for the … from the …" I hope you are okay. But if you are, please refrain from posting incomprehensible stuff in serious threads. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2024, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/58 "2024-07-22T19:45:18Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > Yeah, “jerk-off” is slang for masturbation for obvious reasons. Calling someone a jerk has nothing to do with masturbation, that idea is so bizarre I am not sure if that was a whoosh or if that poster was actually being serious. 🤨 So, with no real counter argument, your answer is to attack the poster, not the post. If only there was a board maxim to address that sort of thing. ---
**Author:** ![DETXL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/detxl/32/19366_2.png) [@DETXL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DETXL)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2024, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/59 "2024-07-22T20:03:59Z")
> [@teelabrown](#): > > I was under the impression (probably because it was a phrase copied down by the English professor in the old movie _Ball of Fire_) that jerk was from the phrase “just a jerk”, meaning a guy was a nobody with a bottom of the barrel job. Just a soda jerk, in other words. Maybe. I suspect the origin may be difficult to ascertain for sure. “Jerk” as US slang for dispensing drinks (beer or soda) dates to just after the Civil War, “soda-jerker” as an occupation from a few decades after that, and “soda jerk” from the 1920s. On the other hand, “jerk-water” as a term for an insubstantial town on a small rail line (by extension an inconsequential and backwards town or thing—a “jerk town”; a “jerk senator”) is slightly older, dating from the 1850s. Maybe this comes from towns being [so small that they didn’t have a water tower and water for the trains had to be “jerked” from a track pan](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jerkwater), as Wiktionary suggests without attribution, although it could also just be from the quality of the track and the experience of riding on those lines. In the masturbatory sense, i.e. “jerking off” and “jerk-off” as a term of disparagement, the word comes from the 30s, postdating the noun “jerk” as a derogatory term for a person, but only by a few years, so I guess it’s possible on the outside the two are linked. However: 1. That likely overlaps and presumably derives from “_jack_ off,” which is a couple decades older, and more saliently 2. In the earliest examples in the OED, a “jerk” is someone who is boring, ignorant, or stupid—which to me seems closer to the “jerk senator” meaning ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2024, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/60 "2024-07-22T20:32:24Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > > [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > > > Yeah, “jerk-off” is slang for masturbation for obvious reasons. Calling someone a jerk has nothing to do with masturbation, that idea is so bizarre I am not sure if that was a whoosh or if that poster was actually being serious. 🤨 > > So, with no real counter argument, your answer is to attack the poster, not the post. > > If only there was a board maxim to address that sort of thing. What? I didn’t “attack” you in any way. I said the idea that calling someone “a jerk” has _anything_ to do with masturbation and therefore leads to sexual violence against women is _so_ bizarre I wasn’t sure if you were being serious or if it was a whoosh. I guess from your replies you really do think that. OK then. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604.md?page=4)