I just got up from conversation with a couple of older black men, that I said “well I got to go back to work and start cracking the whip.” And it occurred to me then that it was probably a really insensitive stupid thing to say.
Sadly, it hadn’t occurred to me until it’s already said.
Those are the exact two examples for me as well! I thought I was alone in my idiocy!
Hell, “jewing someone down” was always a positive and admirable thing for me. Guess as a little kid I thought it was complementary to Jews and never thought about it again.
Not even going to say how long ago it was that I realized the reference to Gypsies. But it was a recent event, and I’m old.
How about “shyster”? I’m scared to ask…
“Gypsies” itself is also seen as a pejorative for the Romani.
Shyster has a reputation as being anti-semitic due to the assumption it is related to Shakespeare’s character Shylock. Historically it isnt, it refers to lawyers and the “shy” comes from German. It’s literally shitters.
Sort of like the word niggardly.
Interesting, so it’s a Yiddish variant of Scheißer?
I don’t think Jews were involved at all, which is another part of what makes it odd that it’s sometimes offensive. There is a similar British slang word, and Germans also immigrated to New York where it is thought to have originated in the prisons.
It does have that certain feel about it.