I ran across this interesting piece in Cracked. I assume some PC Sissies will opt out of using the next seven words, and I’m sure member’s of that cult might actually think about trying to ban language altogether because, well, it’s racist!
Hooligan: dirty Irish drunkards
The earliest use of the word “hooligan” dates back to British newspaper and police reports in the summer of 1898. They seem to have adapted the word from the Houlihan family, a group of Irish immigrants living in London. The family became known for their hilarious drinking songs, jigs and their enthusiastic police brutality that tended to ensue.
Vandal: dirty godless Germans
Vandals were one of the Germanic tribes that sacked Rome.
Hip Hip Hooray!: Let’s go kill some Jews
The first half of “hip hip hooray” is adapted from “hep hep,” an old German shepherds’ herding cry. That is, actual shepherds from Germany. Not the dogs.
Sounds pretty innocuous, right? Well, it was, up until around 1819, when the citizens of Germany and other neighboring countries began using it as their rallying cry while going Hebrew-hunting in the Jewish ghettos.
Barbarian: a stupid jabbering foreigner
Greeks thought that Greek wasn’t just the best language, it was the only language that made any sense at all. All other languages just sounded like people saying “bar bar bar bar.” Thus the word “barbarian,” or someone who speaks the retarded monkey language that Greeks associated with every other nation on Earth.
Bugger: a Bulgarian homosexual
Catholics at the time honestly thought that if your beliefs deviated even slightly from theirs, it followed that you were engaging in all sorts of perverse sexual acts. Such as monogamous sex between two consenting adults who happen to be the same gender. EVIL!
Cannibal: all people from the West Indies
Picture this: You’re a member of one of the indigenous tribes of the West Indies. Every day you wake up under the warm Caribbean sun, do a hard day’s work and then chill out on the beach and watch the sun set. The weather is always beautiful, and life is good. Then, one day, some crazy Italian dude hops off a boat with his muskets and shit and accuses you all of cannibalism.
Well, now you know what it’s like to be a member of the Carib people. Much like the Vandals, the Caribs got stuck with an unfortunate label that bares little relation to reality.
Gyp: a filthy Eastern European immigrant
Gyp is thought to be short for “Gypsy.” And long before that term meant a group of odd people who roam the countryside running scams, it was an ethnic slur for the Romany people who immigrated from Eastern Europe. The term “Gypsy” evolved from the habit of calling the people Egyptians, because they sort of looked Egyptian and the locals were apparently too shy to ask the people where they were actually from.
The point is the negative meaning of the word started centuries ago, and even now plays off the common stereotype of Gypsies as sneaky, thieving con artists.
So, there you have it. Any takers that the sissie PC crowd will attempt to ban some of these words? I think they will. And as usual, it will start in the schools. Get ‘em while they’re young and impressionable! You can read the whole article here.
