Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Those are our words! You can't use this... massive list of slurs.

There are many alternative ways to describe the people of the Germany, though the official designated nationality as well as the standard noun is German. (see also demonym). In practice, Germans are often referred to differently. Historically "German" has had some very different meanings. During the early renaissance "German" merely implied that the person spoke German as a native language. Until the time of the German unification most "Germans" were called after the region they lived in, examples include Bavarians, Brandenburgers and Hanoverians. Some other terms are humorous or derogatory slang, and used mainly by people from other countries, although they can be used in a self-deprecating way by German people themselves. Other terms are serious or tongue-in-cheek attempts to coin words as alternatives to the potentially ambiguous standard terms.


Kraut (offensive)

Raw sauerkraut is an excellent source of Vitamin C. Captain James Cook always took a store of sauerkraut on his sea voyages, since experience had taught him that it was an effective remedy against scurvy. Later, on British ships, sauerkraut was mostly replaced by lime juice (for the same purpose). But German sailors continued with the use of kraut, calling their British colleagues "limies" and being similarly called "krauts."

Boche (offensive)

Boche entered the English language in 1914, from the French slang. In French it meant something close to "rascal," and was applied by French soldiers to Germans in World War I. Its origins can be traced to the French word "Allemand" meaning "German" in eastern French dialects, close to the German border the variant was "Al(le)moche", altered contemptuously to Alboche by association with "caboche", a slang word for "head," which literally meant "cabbage" (compare. "tĂȘte de boche", French for "German" in an 1887 French slang dictionary).

Oosterbuur (friendly)

In the Dutch language the word "Oosterbuur" (Eastern neighbour) nearly always refers to the German people or Germany itself as Germany and the Germans are located to the East of the Netherlands and Belgium. Similarly, the Flemish refer to the Dutch as "Noorderburen" (Northern Neighbours) and the Dutch use "Zuiderburen" (Southern neighbours) for the Belgians.

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boche

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