If a German called you Tommy would you call him Jerry?

[Cowtipper]

Its bad form to call a Jap a Nip (Nipponese) or a German a Kraut. Is it ok to call a German Jerry?

[shaneystar2]

If my husband had a quid for all the times he's been called a Kraut or Jerry in this country I'd be a rich woman .
Especially in the workplace .Ignorant buggers .
On the other hand I've never been called a "Tommy" by my German side of the family unless the drink was in and they started singing old songs :)

[sandyRoe]

If he said: 'For you , Tommy, the war is over', I wouldn't be best pleased. Isn't Fritz the proper response?

[granny grump]

I see that Teuchter is considered a scottish term of abuse - However my dear old dad used to call his 4 girls his wee teuchters it certainly didn't sound like a term of abuse

[Cowtipper]

Thanks for the link Mark. It was quite interesting. I didn't know Yank was a slur, but I'll keep it in mind. It always seemed like a funny nickname because Yankee is a derogatory term for northerners in the south or a non-derogatory reference to some one from New England.

[Cowtipper]

I'm a North American white male. Its only against the law if I say a slur and not if I hear one. I've been called Whitey, Cracker, Redneck, Yankee, Johny, Hillbilly, Houli, Vanilla and a host of other names. It doesn't bother me. I've never considered someone calling me Yank in a negative light but in hind sight it makes a lot of sense.

[Scylax]

'Limey' or 'Tommy' is OK by me. I see no insult at all, and in fact both names have an honourable basis. The 'Yanks' called us Limeys because British seamen were in the habit of drinking lime-juice, for its Vitamin C content , to prevent scurvy; a wise precaution.
When army pay-books were introduced, a British general gave a demonstration of how they should be filled-in, and used the fictitious name of 'Thomas Atkins' as a good example. Immediately, every British soldier became a 'Tommy' overnight. Great.

[joko]

apparrently *** actually is green coat and refers to the green coats worn by border guards in mexico...and their accents made it into grin go

[joko]

wow...hadnt realised grin go was a swear word or offensive!

[joko]

who wrote that list? some of them dont sound right... gypsy = egyptian??

c00n ? i thought that was short for racoon? i may be wrong but some of those sound like assumptions etc

[Cowtipper]

I forgot about ***. You don't hear it very often as they just call you names in Spanish.

That's awesome Scylax. I never knew why British solders were called that or that they had a last name. Limey never really seemed polite to me.
I don't think we'll move away from GI (government issue). In the Civil war Northerners were called Billy Yank and Southerners were called Johnny Reb. Hence "Yank" being a negative term in the south. I think it was just common names at the time.

Joko Gypsy is an itinerant Romani. They have a bad reputation of stealing. I think I've met five in my lifetime. Coon is short for raccoon. They are pests and will break in and steal things. Some sources have listed it coming from coon-hounds( a tracking dog used for hunting raccoons) but I think it just reinforced the use of the word. A lot of negative slurs come from early literature (like Uncle Tom, Sambo) and almost all are used exclusively by other blacks against blacks. There are dozens for black slaves that suck up to white owners still in common usage. (High Yellow, House Nig., Mammy, Uncle Tom). Some things don't go away. Slavery ended here almost 150 years ago but words remain.