We all know racial slurs – chink, Frenchie/Frog, wog, the N-word, and such. And we know they’re unacceptable in pretty much any kind of communication, because they’re offensive and rude. But strangely there are a number of English words that have passed into acceptable usage, but have similar origins in ethno-national stereotypes. Below are a few, some are vaguely negative but most of them pretty harmless, yet they all conjure some less-than-flattering imagery:

1) Barbarian – these days barbarian is used to describe people or places that are crude, unrefined or otherwise lacking in manners or class. Back in ancient times it generally meant anyone who wasn’t ‘civilised’ – though interestingly it was mainly ‘civilised’ people who came up with these disparaging terms! The word’s origins are a bit hard to pinpoint (similar words are found in Mycenaean and Sanskrit writings), but by the time the classical Greeks popularised the word (barbaroi), it referred to people who didn’t speak Greek, whose speech sounded like so much gibberish (barbarbarbarbar). By the late 5th century BC barbaroi referred specifically to the Persians, who ironically probably regarded the Greeks as barbarians (in the modern sense of the word anyway). Continue reading “a collection of vaguely mean words with pretty mean origins” →