It may have at some time in the past, but I’ve never heard it used that way. It means just what it does in the US.
I’ve heard that one used by Jews. Sometimes while committing it.
– admittedly, just because we can use it doesn’t mean the rest of you can. But I don’t think it’s seriously offensive.
There’s a scene in one of George Macdonald Fraser’s MacAuslan novels - The General Danced At Dawn, I think - where the pipe sergeant of the narrator’s fictional World War II Highland regiment corrects another NCO when he refers to Afghan tribesmen as “n----rs”: “You shouldnae call them n----rs. They wasn’t n----rs; they wis wogs”. Fiction, but the MacAuslan novels are a very thinly-fictionalized account of Fraser’s time with the Gordon Highlanders immediately after the war.
I’d always heard that while “jerk” was related to masturbation, that it also encompassed the belief that it led to mental feebleness and that a “jerk” was someone who had engaged in that practice so extensively that it resulted in that end.
I’ve always understood the “Irish goodbye” as being the opposite of ghosting: In ghosting, you leave but don’t say goodbye, while the “Irish goodbye” is saying goodbye but not leaving.
Nope, I’m pretty sure I’m correct. I’m not Irish (though I drink like I am), but an Irish Goodbye is leaving an event/party without saying goodbye to anyone.
No, an Irish goodbye is definitely just leaving without saying goodbye, although I wouldn’t call that ghosting either. At least, that’s how my circle has always used it.
Not so pejorative as all that, though. It likely refers to the Irish cops operating the vehicle, and not the customers.
Agree. Ghosting is more negative.
And the word “kaffir” is not commonly known as racist at least in some areas; I had never heard of it until reading a Harry Turtledove book in which near-future South African white nationalists went back in time to the US Civil War to equip Lee with AK47s, to prevent future problems with “kaffirs”.
For thsoe who are unfamiliar with the word (like I was), I gather it’s the South African equiivalent of n****r.
I changed my name here due to that as well. Originally I was SpazCat and then I realized that was not a good name anymore.
Huh. I’ve always heard that practice referred to as “French leave”.
A varlet’s choice indeed!
There was a Doper whose name was Venus Hottentot, until called out on the negative connotations; IIRC, she changed it to Nzinga, Seated.
Again going back to the “so old it’s nearly forgotten” concept. Though that particular name is well-enough documented that its unfortunate origins can be easily dug up.
I never heard it called that, but that’s what my parents always did. Drove me crazy when I was a kid; we’d have to stop playing and put our coats on, then stand around while the adults talked.
Huh - interesting. Those would not seem to be construed as insults, all in all. I guess if you are a “gentleman”, calling someone a varlet in a fight might imply they are of a lower class and undeserving of being treated as a gentleman.
But at least it means I can use it here in this thread without being called out as offensive, right?
Nothing pejorative about those, as such, but MIMICKING them might be seen as making fun of the speakers.
Around here, in the Midwestern U.S., the term “Midwest Goodbye” is used for the same idea.
I had to reset a password for a co-worker and I set it to “Banana” because there was a banana sitting on my desk. He grew up in the Texas panhandle but his parents are Chinese. He let me know that “banana” is used to refer to people that are (his words) “yellow on the outside but white on the inside.” It didn’t bother him. He was just letting me know.
The list of “X to refer to people that are A on the outside but B on the inside’” food items is kinda long.
No doubt. But I can only think of one other.
Oreo, coconut, banana, apple, and watermelon (‘green’ on the outside but ‘red’ on the inside) without looking them up.