Xenophobic slang

[md0]

Apparently ποδανά (from ανάδοπα - reverse) is a thing in mainland Greece. Or it was in the past. In any case, never heard of or used it here in Cyprus.

[Ludwig Whitby]

Yep.

And it is rather popular. The cool kids in my parents' generation used to use it and the cool kids of today's generation still use it. (With a lot of innovations of course, like the 'leaving out syllables' and 'adding syllables' from the Wikipedia article. Though not the one with adding of the 'p'. Nobody does that.)

[Iván]

In Finnish:

neekeri - Black person
hurri - Swedish-speaking Finnish
ryssä - Russian
manne, mustalainen - Romani people

[TeneReef]

In English:

aliens (foreigners)

[vijayjohn]

In English:

aliens (foreigners)

I guess you could say that's xenophobic, but it's hardly slang.

USA - Pindostan/Pindosia, American (nationality) - pindos - Пиндосия, Пиндостан, пиндос

Any idea what this means/why exactly it's so offensive?

I just found out this morning. The answer is pretty complicated but interesting. I'm just going to quote from Yahoo! Answers, where somebody seems to have posted a good explanation (and even mentions the etymology of 'Tajik' as well):

Looking up something else in my largest Russian-English dictionary, my eye lit on the entry пиндос [pindós] m obs colloq pindos (term of abuse used by Russians of Greeks). I love ethnic slurs in foreign languages, so of course it caught my attention, and I googled it, wondering if this obsolete term for a Greek would have any sort of online presence. Indeed it did, but only glancingly in relation to Greeks: the first hit, the Russian Wikipedia article, explained that it had originated in southern Russia as an insult for Greeks (where of course there was more opportunity to interact with them) and had been used in that sense by Chekhov, Fazil Iskander, and Konstantin Paustovsky, among others, but that with the passage of time it had lost its ethnic specificity and come to mean 'any foreigner from the south, especially one seen as physically and morally weak.' In this sense it passed into military and criminal jargon of the 1950s-'80s (aided by its phonetic resemblance to various Russian swear words), and by the time of the Kosovo crisis of the 1990s it was available to fill a new slot, becoming an insulting term for American soldiers serving abroad, and by now (according to Wikipedia) refers to any American. (There's a great deal of discussion in the article about the origin of the word, but I don't see how it makes sense to see it as derived from anything but Pindos [Πίνδος], the name of a Greek mountain range.) This is a fascinating semantic development, reminiscent of the etymology of Tajik: an Arabic term for a member of the tribe of Tayy became first a Persian term for any Arab and then a Turkish term for an Iranian Muslim, winding up as a specific term for the Iranian population of Central Asia (mainly in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan). I'd be curious if Russian-speaking readers are familiar with пиндос and if so, in which of its senses?

I first heard "pindos" (actually, more often its plural "pindosy") used as a disparaging term for Americans around 1999. I am not familiar with the "physically and morally weak" connotation though. The word had probably been in use before 1990s in some circles, as you point out, but certainly not widely. Nowadays it seems so popular in the Russian internet jargon (in the generic, moderately disparaging sense) that I'd surmise it may gradually be losing its offensiveness.

[Lur]

Basque belarrimotz. "Short ears". I think this is another term that refers despectively (but not always? I don't know) to the surrounding Romance speakers that don't understand Basque.

[Prowler]

Here we call the British bifes which means beefs/steaks. It's due to them getting sunburned fairly easily. Not a very offensive term, though.

[Marah]

Here we call the British bifes which means beefs/steaks. It's due to them getting sunburned fairly easily. Not a very offensive term, though.

We call them Rosbif (roast beef) in France.

[mōdgethanc]

Here we call the British bifes which means beefs/steaks. It's due to them getting sunburned fairly easily. Not a very offensive term, though.

Why do you think it's because of that and not because of their stereotypical favourite food? (See frog, Kraut, beaner, limey, etc.)

[Prowler]

Here we call the British bifes which means beefs/steaks. It's due to them getting sunburned fairly easily. Not a very offensive term, though.

Why do you think it's because of that and not because of their stereotypical favourite food? (See frog, Kraut, beaner, limey, etc.)

Hmm... never thought about it that way.

As for Germans, the slang term for them here is "Boche" which is not related to food, afaik.

[linguoboy]

As for Germans, the slang term for them here is "Boche" which is not related to food, afaik.

I thought Boche was a reference to their helmets, but it may simply be a pejorative suffix which gained a life of its own. (See: http://atilf.atilf.fr/dendien/scripts/tlfiv5/advanced.exe?8;s=417856770;.)

Eating habits are a frequent source of pejorative nicknames, but I'm not sure it's more popular overall than common given names (e.g. Fritz, Ivan, Hymie) or articles of apparel (e.g. towelheads, dot(head)s, 쪽발이).

[Levike]

http://atilf.atilf.fr/dendien/scripts/tlfiv5/advanced.exe?8;s=417856770;

Erreur CGI

L'application CGI spécifiée n'a pas renvoyé le jeu complet d'en-têtes HTTP.

[Lietmotiv]

Europe, europeans - Gayrope, gayropeans - Гейропа, гейропеец
Asian - narrow-eyed - узкоглазые
People with darker skin than most Russians have - black-assed - черножопые
USA - Pindostan/Pindosia, American (nationality) - pindos - Пиндосия, Пиндостан, пиндос

чехи (litterary Czechs) - used for Chechens
даги Dagi, used for Dagestani
хачи/чурки Hachi, Churki -For other Caucasus people
хохлы Hohly - used for Ukrainians
кацапы katsapy - used for Russians.



I'd add "майданутые " (a very new one, I heard it on Russian TV a few months ago) for the protesters on Maydan.

[Lada]

чехи (litterary Czechs) - used for Chechens

Never heard before

кацапы katsapy - used for Russians.

Poles and Ukrainians use this word and also москали moskali

I'd add "майданутые " (a very new one, I heard it on Russian TV a few months ago) for the protesters on Maydan.

Yeah, and майдауны too, but that's not only about actual protesters but about all those Ukrainians who show their hatred on Russian boards (I mean online).

Колорады kolorady - pro-Russian Ukrainians or may be all Russians?.
That word I learned from Ukrainian media and it comes from Colorado potato beetle whose colors look like Russian patriotic ribbon (Георгиевская лента) worn on Victory Day.

[Lietmotiv]

чехи (litterary Czechs) - used for Chechens

Never heard before

http://tanci-kavkaza.ru/pochemu-chechen ... ya-noxchi/
http://www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=1077629

I heard this word in Moscow(where there are a lot of Czechs(Chechens)

Колорады kolorady - pro-Russian Ukrainians or may be all Russians?.
That word I learned from Ukrainian media and it comes from Colorado potato beetle whose colors look like Russian patriotic ribbon (Георгиевская лента) worn on Victory Day.

It's not only used for Russians, for example in Moldova they call "kolorady" all the people who wear the Victory Day ribbon/or put it in their cars and so on.

[Murk]

tibla = russkie
tiblad = russkies