ETHNIC NAME

ETHNIC NAME, also ethnic label and, when pejorative, ethnic slur. A

nickname for someone from a particular nationality, race, community, or
culture. The spectrum of ethnic names in English ranges from more or less
affectionate nicknames (such as Jock for a Scotsman, as used in England)
through relatively neutral terms (such as Brit for someone British) through
the use in affectionate abuse of terms that can otherwise be offensive (such
as Limey and Yank between American and British friends), to highly
offensive racial and/or religious slurs used without restraint, such
as dago for someone of Spanish, Portuguese, or Latin American
background, and Yid/yid for someone Jewish.

Ethnic names in English generally fall into three social categories: (1) For
peoples (and their languages) outside the English-speaking
world: Frog/Froggie, someone from France or who speaks French; Kraut,
a German; Polack, a Pole; Wop/wop, an Italian. (2) For national and
regional identities within the English-speaking world: Limey, especially in
the US, for someone British; Pom(mie)/pom(mie), in Australasia, for
someone from England; Newfie, in Canada, for a Newfoundlander. (3)
Groups marked as different by habitat, race, language, and/or
religion: Wog/wog for an Arab, South Asian, or black African; Yid/yid a
Jew. Such terms also generally fall into four etymological categories: (1)
Taken from personal names already common in the group concerned:
Jock, a common Scottish pet form of John; dago, from the common man's
name Diego in Spanish. (2) Taken from names associated with the entire
group: Abo, an abbreviation of Aborigine; Newfie, an abbreviation
of Newfoundlander; Yid, a word already meaning ‘Jew’. (3) Referring to
something seen as characterizing the group in question, such as
complexion (Coloured and Negro/nigger), food (Frog from the eating of
frogs' legs in France; Kraut from the eating of sauerkraut in Germany), or
an emblem (Kiwi, the name of a flightless New Zealand bird; bogwog, in
which the element bog is associated with Ireland: whence ‘an Irish wog’).
(4) Formed as plays on words associated with the target group: Pommy, an
abbreviation of pomegranate, in turn a play on immigrant
Once established, however, a name's origin is often lost to its users, with
the result that etymologists may have difficulty tracing its provenance.
Many ethnic names have uncertain or disputed etymologies, among them
folk etymologies that may have been created as jokes: for
example, wog has been explained as a pseudo-abbreviation of
‘Westernized Oriental Gentleman’ and, in the plural, as originally an
official British acronym for ‘workers on government service’ in the Suez
Canal area, who are said to have worn armbands emblazoned WOGS.
Probably, however, wog is a clipping of golliwog/gollywog, the name for a
soft cloth doll with a black face and fuzzy hair, taken in turn from the
name of a doll character in The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls—and a
Golliwog (1895), a children's book by the US writer Bertha Upton, and
illustrated by her sister Florence.
Generally, ethnic names are restricted to informal and slang usage and
ethnic slurs are associated with strong emotion and often unexamined bias
on the part of the user. The degree of acceptability or unacceptability of
such a name may change over the years, and from group to group.
Sometimes, names that cease for a time to be used because of their
derogatory associations are later revived with positive associations, as for
example Black/black