Monica

Photo: clipart.com

Everyday Terms with Offensive Origins

Below are six everyday terms that actually have super offensive origins (courtesy of Oxford Dictionaries):

1.  “No can do.”  Today it’s a way of saying you can’t do something.  But in the 1800s, it was a way of making fun of CHINESE people who spoke broken English.

2.  “Long time no see.”  A lot like the last one, but it was a way of imitating how Native Americans spoke English.

3.  “Gypped.” as in being cheated out of something.  It’s offensive to some people because it furthers the stereotype that gypsies are dishonest thieves.

4.  “Paddy wagon.”  The name “Paddy” used to be short for Patrick.  And it was also used as a derogatory term for Irish people.  It might be connected to police vehicles because cops back then were commonly of Irish descent.

5. “Basket Case.” Although basket case is typically used today to refer to a ‘person or thing regarded as useless or unable to cope’ (think of Green Day’s canonical pop-punk tune), the term originally referred to a person, usually a soldier from World War I, who has lost all four limbs. The basket in this sense refers to the basket that the person would need to be carried around in. In this sense, the word is considered very offensive.

6. To “drink the Kool-Aid.” The phrase emerged from the news coverage surrounding the mass suicide of the Peoples’ Temple, a political/religious movement in Jonestown, Guyana, in 1978. The members of the movement drank a cyanide-laced drink compared at the time to the fruit-flavored drink Kool-Aid.

*Bonus offensive phrase: “Rule of thumb.” OK, so this one is more of a ‘rumor’ than a verification, but it’s believed to have origins in spousal abuse. According to a statement by an eighteenth-century judge, it was legal for a man to beat his wife so long that it was with a stick no wider than his thumb.

Recent Headlines

5 hours ago in Trending, World

Hurricane Melissa is set to hit Jamaica as its strongest storm since records began

Hurricane Melissa was set to pummel Jamaica on Tuesday as a catastrophic Category 5 storm, the strongest to lash the island since recordkeeping began 174 years ago.

5 hours ago in Lifestyle, Trending

How Americans will be celebrating Halloween, according to a new AP-NORC poll

About two-thirds of U.S. adults will celebrate Halloween in some way this year, with parents of kids under 18 especially likely to have plans, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

5 hours ago in Entertainment

A newly discovered Dr. Seuss manuscript will celebrate America’s 250th anniversary

A newly discovered Dr. Seuss manuscript featuring the Cat in the Hat and celebrating the United States will be published next year, just in time for America's 250th anniversary.

5 hours ago in Sports, Trending

Freeman’s homer in 18th inning lifts Dodgers over Blue Jays 6-5 in World Series classic

Freddie Freeman homered leading off the bottom of the 18th, Shohei Ohtani went deep twice during another record-setting performance and the Los Angeles Dodgers outlasted the Toronto Blue Jays 6-5 in an instant classic Monday night.

23 hours ago in Entertainment

‘Yeah, boyeeee’: Flavor Flav gives bobsled and skeleton a try, joins team as hype man for Olympics

At 66 years old, Flavor Flav went 67 mph. That was all it took to get him hooked on sliding. Meet the newest fan of the U.S. bobsled and skeleton program: a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, a founding member of Public Enemy, a reality show star and now, an aspiring slider.