Re: Self-Use of Ethnic Insults (was: Re: Ebonic Christmas )

At 3:47 pm +0100 15/1/00, BP Jonsson wrote:
[...]
>
>I had *no idea* there was anything negative attached to the word _Jew_ in
>English,
I regret that 'Jew' was often used offensively to mean 'a miser', 'an
unscrupulous userer'.  That use was certainly still current when I was
young.

I have not heard it in recent years.  I think as the enormity of the
holocaust began to sink in in the post-war years, people began to realize
that maybe centuries of negative stereotyping of Jews had been one factor
in making the holocaust a possibility.

I would like to think this usage was now dead - tho, alas, I suspect it isn't.

>anymore than to _Swede_
As you well know, 'swede' has a very positive meaning - mashed swedes are
delicious and, along with malt whiskey, an almost necessary accompianment
to haggis (which is also delicious  :)

(NB - I apologize to any vegetarian who I may have offended - but no
offense is intented since one can now get vegetarian-friendly haggises   !)

Ray.

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A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
                   [J.G. Hamann 1760]
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