Words I didn't realize were pejorative until later in life

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

@Kropotkin

Perhaps it is more ignorance, imprecision, mishearing, and a desire not to be offensive than “PC run amok,” which implies someone somewhere has decreed something is now taboo and someone else is now offended by the suggestion they use another word. See “jerry-built,” above, also “niggardly” and “chink” as in “chink in his armor.” Apart from here on the sdmb, I’d rather drop a word than have someone, however mistakenly, think I was being offensive. Taking the time to point out the correct etymology can make one sound smug and superior while trying to use offensive words without being called out. It’s tadpoles all the way down for me.

For me, it comes down to thinking it’s borderline superstitious to prioritize the historical usage of dead people over the sincere reactions of the living. I love etymology, but etymology is just history, not an objectively correct guide to usage.

A word like “niggardly” has no connection to racial slurs historically, but if it hits the ears of the living wrong, I won’t use it. That’s not because I’m ignorant of the word’s history, but because the history isn’t the issue at hand.

It’s for that reason that when I hear, "bless you!’ after someone sneezes, I don’t visualize blood spattering everywhere.

[teelabrown]

@Jasmine

I don’t suppose you have much reason to use the word “polywog” at work but, if you did, what would be his reaction?

Ha, this reminds me of the conversation I had with my boss in which the unlikely word “pollywog” came up. Her daughter had a black pug, and I’ve owned pugs in the past. I shared with her that if I had a black pug, I’d name it “Tadpole” if it was a boy, and “Pollywog” if it was a girl. They’d be called Tad or Polly for short, respectively.

[Kropotkin]

@Left_Hand_of_Dorkness

A word like “niggardly” has no connection to racial slurs historically, but if it hits the ears of the living wrong, I won’t use it. That’s not because I’m ignorant of the word’s history, but because the history isn’t the issue at hand.

Completely in agreement with this.

[thorny_locust]

@pulykamell

And Jerry for German isn’t attested until 1919, as well.

I wonder whether “Jerry” for German comes from “jerry-built” instead of the other way around?

[pulykamell]

That doesn’t seem as plausible to me as German->Jerry and just ordinary sound play.

[thorny_locust]

I don’t say them very alike; but maybe people do in England?

[pulykamell]

Close enough for me as an American speaker that it seems logical enough.

However, etymonline does give other possibilities, so there may be more to it, though the connection is to a different meaning of jerry than that in jerry-rigged.

World War I British Army slang for “a German; the Germans,” 1919, probably an alteration of German based on the male nickname Jerry, popular form of Jeremy. But it also is said to be from the shape of the German helmet, which was thought to resemble a jerry, British slang for “chamber pot, toilet” (1850), this being probably an abbreviation of jeroboam, which is attested in this sense from 1827. Compare jerry-hat"round felt hat" (1841).

[MrDibble]

@Jasmine

PC run amok

Hey, that’s cultural appropriation…

[deneen]

As children, my twin sister and I used to call one another “jerk” all the time, never earning an eye-bat from our mother. I had no idea the shock or outrage adding “off” to the term would cause until it happened…

[Jasmine]

That was very interesting!

[jnglmassiv]

@Left_Hand_of_Dorkness

A word like “niggardly” has no connection to racial slurs historically, but if it hits the ears of the living wrong, I won’t use it.

A major film was released when I was an impressionable age in 1990 that suddenly gave tweenaged boys plasible license to use the nono word DICK_Tracy! Oh, what fun and a great gateway to swearing in Catholic grammar school. “No, Mrs. [Teacher], I wasn’t calling [Classmate] a bad word, you must have heard me talking about Dick Tracy Happy Meal toys, teeheehee!”

“Oh, you thought I meant…” is not fooling anyone.

[msmith537]

@chela

I’ve heard of pud, in my area it meant penis or really we used it to call someone a dick

Bint I thought was a made up word using bitch and cunt.

All words are made up words.

@Kropotkin

Perhaps it is more ignorance, imprecision, mishearing, and a desire not to be offensive than “PC run amok,” which implies someone somewhere has decreed something is now taboo and someone else is now offended by the suggestion they use another word. See “jerry-built,” above, also “niggardly” and “chink” as in “chink in his armor.” Apart from here on the sdmb, I’d rather drop a word than have someone, however mistakenly, think I was being offensive. Taking the time to point out the correct etymology can make one sound smug and superior while trying to use offensive words without being called out. It’s tadpoles all the way down for me.

I think if you need to explore the etymology of a word to even debate whether it’s offensive, I think that might be a bit overly PC.

[Q.Q.Switcheroo]

“I’m Dick Tracy! Take that, Prune-face! Now I’m Prune-face! Take that, Dick Tracy! Now I’m Prune Tracy! Take that, Dick…”

[jnglmassiv]

“We’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas” and its brother “…and it isn’t working” have proven to be useful coping phrases.

[EnolaStraight]

Different.

If you’re a guy and tell somebody they’re different, well, he’s just stating a bald fact, like water is wet or ice is cold.

To a woman or girl, saying “You’re different”, is incredibly pejorative, on par with calling someone else ugly or stupid

[thorny_locust]

@EnolaStraight

To a woman or girl, saying “You’re different”, is incredibly pejorative, on par with calling someone else ugly or stupid

Not to this woman.

At any rate, not unless the tone of voice is pejorative.

[puzzlegal]

@veryfrank

@Slithy_Tove

Whoopi Goldberg is said to own an extensive collection, which she calls “Negrobilia.”

Spike Lee reportedly did as well. In David Edelstein’s great review of Bamboozled (I mean, it’s a well-written review, the movie didn’t work for him), he has this terrific observation: “Lee was apparently inspired to return to this scenario by reports of how few African-American writers there are in network TV—an injustice that sent him back to his apparently immense collection of stereotypical Negro memorabilia. It’s tempting to compare him to Batman—a man who becomes a superheroic avenger by keeping his sense of injury alive.”

My brother in law collects swastikas. Not Nazi memorabilia, but pre-nazi swastikas, which apparently were mostly used as a good-luck symbol, and a lot of his stuff also features 4 leaf clovers and rabbit feet.

[puzzlegal]

@EnolaStraight

To a woman or girl, saying “You’re different”, is incredibly pejorative, on par with calling someone else ugly or stupid

Huh? That’s new to me. And i would think it was highly context dependant.

[Eyebrows_0f_Doom]

@EnolaStraight

Different.

If you’re a guy and tell somebody they’re different, well, he’s just stating a bald fact, like water is wet or ice is cold.

To a woman or girl, saying “You’re different”, is incredibly pejorative, on par with calling someone else ugly or stupid

Never heard that. Tone, place, and intention could make that a pejorative for men or women. Tbh that’s an odd thing to say to anyone and I would think it would almost always be taken as a pejorative by whomever it’s directed at! It’s rarely a compliment to be called out as “different.”

Who is telling you “you’re different” is a slur against women only?

[EnolaStraight]

There was some sociological experiment with kindergarteners…one group, all girls, the other all boys…and the teacher tells the girls “We are all the same.”

All the girls lit up like christmas trees.

When telling boys “we are all the same”, the boys just gave the teacher blank looks.

In any case, I was in a conversation with a girl and her girlrfiend and I was pointing out how none of us are turned out on an assembly line with cookie cutters…we are all different…she was nearly in tears, girlfriend gave me the Death Glare, and I’m wondering what the hell I did wrong.