Comments on: Around Ethnic Slurs Part 1: Squaw http://blog.oup.com/2009/07/ethnic-slurs/ Introducing brilliant authors to the blogosphere. Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:43:07 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Monthly Gleanings, Part I: (August 2009) : OUPblog http://blog.oup.com/2009/07/ethnic-slurs/comment-page-1/#comment-153304 Monthly Gleanings, Part I: (August 2009) : OUPblog Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:38:51 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/?p=4976#comment-153304 [...] My post on squaw produced some ripples. Three lawyers from Michigan gave me the lashing of their tongue(s). (I am [...] [...] My post on squaw produced some ripples. Three lawyers from Michigan gave me the lashing of their tongue(s). (I am [...]

]]> By: bob fulford http://blog.oup.com/2009/07/ethnic-slurs/comment-page-1/#comment-152924 bob fulford Sat, 08 Aug 2009 18:36:43 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/?p=4976#comment-152924 I remember from my childhood someone with a small,scrunched up mouth and the way of speaking engendered by that configuration (or habit) was refered to as "squirrel mouthed". I can find no reference to that meaning in a cursory look at the web. Do you have something? I do find references that suggest "squirrel mouthed" suggests a large, commodius mouth. Perhaps I misremember my early observation. I remember from my childhood someone with a small,scrunched up mouth and the way of speaking engendered by that configuration (or habit) was refered to as “squirrel mouthed”.

I can find no reference to that meaning in a cursory look at the web. Do you have something?

I do find references that suggest “squirrel mouthed” suggests a large, commodius mouth. Perhaps I misremember my early observation.

]]> By: Around Ethnic Slurs. Part 2: SHEENY : OUPblog http://blog.oup.com/2009/07/ethnic-slurs/comment-page-1/#comment-152805 Around Ethnic Slurs. Part 2: SHEENY : OUPblog Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:37:50 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/?p=4976#comment-152805 [...] alteration of Zhid, a Russian-Polish offensive name for a Jew (I mentioned it in my recent post on squaw): their sounds are too dissimilar. It is true that Jew dog and other gentle phrases of the same [...] [...] alteration of Zhid, a Russian-Polish offensive name for a Jew (I mentioned it in my recent post on squaw): their sounds are too dissimilar. It is true that Jew dog and other gentle phrases of the same [...]

]]> By: J P Maher http://blog.oup.com/2009/07/ethnic-slurs/comment-page-1/#comment-152713 J P Maher Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:19:56 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/?p=4976#comment-152713 Zhid ‘Jew’. In the 1930s-1940s I grew up in south-central New York State, next-door so to speak, to the Anthracite zone of Pennsylvania. We lived “diversity” and didn’t blather about it all the time. We liked each other. Ethnicity was taken for granted and it was something we kidded each other about in good humor. Coming home after a beer with buddies one Sunday after afternoon, my dad told how he set off a chain reaction. Looking at the bar clock one of the bunch said he had to get home to his wife, calling her his ball-and-chain. An Irish buddy picked up on this, saying he had to get home to his shillelagh (Irish blackthorn stick, named for a place in County Wicklow). A Ruthenian buddy said he was heading home to his hammer-and-sickle. Old-country hatreds were left back in the old country. The haters among us were usually the “Yankees” (WASPs since the 1950s): they called all the rest of us “foreigners”, not just the neighbors with non-English language, but the Irish, too.—On the website indicated below “Zheedo” is discussed. It came to NY & Pennsylvania by way of Hungarian zsidó (zsido with long O). http://users.erols.com/sfpayer/CoalR/commcoalr.htm “Zhido, Zheedo: A Jew. His name was Adler. The hucksters, (see page 2, ‘Region and the Mines’), came to the patch towns [ethnic settlements] to hawk vegetables and groceries. Similarly, the zhido came in a little ‘40s style panel truck to sell women’s and kids’ clothing. This name was not applied as a term of contempt ... not at all. In a way there were connotations of respect and a more than a little envy in its use. Here was a self employed man with a clean and safe job, a truck of his own, independent of the coal operators, whose wife never had to worry about a rock fall in the mines. It was not until I was much older that I learned its true derivation.” Zhid ‘Jew’. In the 1930s-1940s I grew up in south-central New York State, next-door so to speak, to the Anthracite zone of Pennsylvania. We lived “diversity” and didn’t blather about it all the time. We liked each other. Ethnicity was taken for granted and it was something we kidded each other about in good humor. Coming home after a beer with buddies one Sunday after afternoon, my dad told how he set off a chain reaction. Looking at the bar clock one of the bunch said he had to get home to his wife, calling her his ball-and-chain. An Irish buddy picked up on this, saying he had to get home to his shillelagh (Irish blackthorn stick, named for a place in County Wicklow). A Ruthenian buddy said he was heading home to his hammer-and-sickle. Old-country hatreds were left back in the old country. The haters among us were usually the “Yankees” (WASPs since the 1950s): they called all the rest of us “foreigners”, not just the neighbors with non-English language, but the Irish, too.—On the website indicated below “Zheedo” is discussed. It came to NY & Pennsylvania by way of Hungarian zsidó (zsido with long O).
http://users.erols.com/sfpayer/CoalR/commcoalr.htm
“Zhido, Zheedo: A Jew. His name was Adler. The hucksters, (see page 2, ‘Region and the Mines’), came to the patch towns [ethnic settlements] to hawk vegetables and groceries. Similarly, the zhido came in a little ‘40s style panel truck to sell women’s and kids’ clothing. This name was not applied as a term of contempt … not at all. In a way there were connotations of respect and a more than a little envy in its use. Here was a self employed man with a clean and safe job, a truck of his own, independent of the coal operators, whose wife never had to worry about a rock fall in the mines. It was not until I was much older that I learned its true derivation.”

]]> By: J P Maher http://blog.oup.com/2009/07/ethnic-slurs/comment-page-1/#comment-152695 J P Maher Sun, 19 Jul 2009 12:18:37 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/?p=4976#comment-152695 "Dynamite words". Use with care, even intelligence. Are Negress, Jewess (Judith, Esther) derogatory?... How about lioness, tigress, princess, empress? I'm 100% mick. Dear me, I just dissolve in tears when some WASP calls me that. No word is intrinsically one or the other. PCretins (etymologically "christian") don't understand what the French call "mots affectifs". Affect can go either way, positive or negative.... An insult can become a boast. "Square" was intended as complimentary in 1900, as an insult in 1950. In either epoch the word could be turned about, in defiance of the other's intent. Take "Protestant" e.g. intended by the Vatican once as derogatory, but taken up as badge of pride by the target population. For the reverse, names like Bright, Albright, Fulbright are often the butt of jokes. (PCitizens: remember jokes?) Hooray for Prof. Liberman. “Dynamite words”. Use with care, even intelligence. Are Negress, Jewess (Judith, Esther) derogatory?… How about lioness, tigress, princess, empress? I’m 100% mick. Dear me, I just dissolve in tears when some WASP calls me that. No word is intrinsically one or the other. PCretins (etymologically “christian”) don’t understand what the French call “mots affectifs”. Affect can go either way, positive or negative…. An insult can become a boast. “Square” was intended as complimentary in 1900, as an insult in 1950. In either epoch the word could be turned about, in defiance of the other’s intent. Take “Protestant” e.g. intended by the Vatican once as derogatory, but taken up as badge of pride by the target population. For the reverse, names like Bright, Albright, Fulbright are often the butt of jokes. (PCitizens: remember jokes?) Hooray for Prof. Liberman.

]]> By: Oxford Etymologist on the Word “Squaw” — Indigenous Etymologist Needed! « Turtle Talk http://blog.oup.com/2009/07/ethnic-slurs/comment-page-1/#comment-152596 Oxford Etymologist on the Word “Squaw” — Indigenous Etymologist Needed! « Turtle Talk Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:14:39 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/?p=4976#comment-152596 [...] defense of the use of the word “squaw” by the Oxford Etymologist Anatoly Liberman (here). We could be wrong, but this article seems to be a classic case of an academic wearing blinders, [...] [...] defense of the use of the word “squaw” by the Oxford Etymologist Anatoly Liberman (here). We could be wrong, but this article seems to be a classic case of an academic wearing blinders, [...]

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