Re: Word usage in group versus out of group.

Raimundus A. Brown scripsit:

> The English of Britain still do!  The term, by extension, can also be
> applied to Latin Americans.
Oho.

> The derogatory word for Italians is either 'wops' or 'Ities' (/aitaiz/ -
Both of those are known and used here, as well as "guinea" (which has
gone into American Italian as "ghini" = "fool").  "Eyetie" is
perhaps the more usual spelling here.

> hence the silly joke about greeting an intoxicated Italian: "Hi, tiddly
> Ity!")
Which is the Brit version of "shave and a haircut".  :-)

> And of course, in the anglophone world outside of Britain I believe I'm
> known as a 'Limey'  :)
Rather old-fashioned, and probably not derogatory.  In fact, there is AFAIK
no purely derogatory American term for a subject or former subject of
Her Majesty.

"WASP" ("White Anglo-Saxon Protestant", pronounced "wasp") is often
derogatory, but it is applied equally well to people who have been
American for centuries, and are often really Scots-Irish into the
bargain.  (To mention the families of America's most famous feud:
the Hatfields were probably English, but the McCoys were surely
Ulster Scots.)

The usual non-derogatory term is "Brit", of course.

--
John Cowan      http://www.ccil.org/~cowan              cowan@ccil.org
        You tollerday donsk?  N.  You tolkatiff scowegian?  Nn.
        You spigotty anglease?  Nnn.  You phonio saxo?  Nnnn.
                Clear all so!  'Tis a Jute.... (Finnegans Wake 16.5)