Terms Which Have Disappeared

[skydog757]

My mother used to use the word "honyuck" or "honyock" (not sure of the spelling) when referring to a person that she didn't care for. I later learned that it was a originally a derogatory term for recent eastern european immigrants, later generalized to mean any simple-minded or unwelcome person. Being as how I stay away from any words that might give offense to a group or race of people, I myself have not used it. Nor have I heard it in a very long time.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^

A long time ago I worked at a place that employed mostly lower-middle and downright lower-class native-born Americans and a whole lot of immigrants. It was common among certain of the former category to refer to the latter by the term your mother used, skydog. Never mind that most of those recent arrivals to these shores departed from Africa and the Middle East -- quite some ways from Eastern Europe. And I'd wager that very few of those people who uttered that term (and yes, it was meant to be derogatory) had any clue as to its etymology.

 

[EliasRDA]

Klick was still used in the USA army in the early 90's, no idea about now but from what my young current army friends tell me it still is.

As for degaratory names, not gonna touch it as many consider my views on it non PC in this day & age. But then again, I've been called many nasty names myself, so whatever.

I still use going "going a mile a minute" for someone either speeding or as I was taught in the army "hi speed low drag" for someone busting their butt moving out.

 

[EliasRDA]

In a diary that was written by James L. Trueheart in 1842. Who was taken prisoner during
the second Mexican invasion by General Woll under the command of Gen. Antonio Santa Anna.
Mr. Trueheart while in Perote prison in Mexico wrote about the march & the things he & fellow Texans encountered
along the way. One word or term is the use of "leagues" instead of "miles" to describe the amount of distance covered
on a day to day.

A league was sort of common usage, I have heard it in usage up in SE Connecticut but we are seafaring folk up there & it was/is a common nautical term.

Found this though... A league is a unit of length (or, in various regions, area). It was long common in Europe and Latin America, but it is no longer an official unit in any nation. The word originally meant the distance a person could walk in an hour.[1] Since the Middle Ages, many values have been specified in several countries.

Wikipedia can be your friend, sometimes.

 

[skydog757]

And I'd wager that very few of those people who uttered that term (and yes, it was meant to be derogatory) had any clue as to its etymology.

In my wildest dreams I can't imagine my mother using that word if she'd understood its origin. She may have after a time; she hasn't spoken it in over forty years.

 

[Bushman]

Klick was still used in the USA army in the early 90's, no idea about now but from what my young current army friends tell me it still is.

I still use going "going a mile a minute" for someone either speeding or as I was taught in the army "hi speed low drag" for someone busting their butt moving out.

Well, being that Klick is military slang for a kilometer, I wouldn't imagine it going out of style anytime soon.

I too use the phrase "going a mile a minute" often, but usually in reference to somebody who's either rambling on incoherently or who's bouncing around trying to get multiple tasks done at once. For example, "Slow down there, you're going a mile a minute!"

 

[LizzieMaine]

^^^^

A long time ago I worked at a place that employed mostly lower-middle and downright lower-class native-born Americans and a whole lot of immigrants. It was common among certain of the former category to refer to the latter by the term your mother used, skydog. Never mind that most of those recent arrivals to these shores departed from Africa and the Middle East -- quite some ways from Eastern Europe. And I'd wager that very few of those people who uttered that term (and yes, it was meant to be derogatory) had any clue as to its etymology.

That particular term originally applied specifically to persons of Hungarian origin. It usually came out in the same breath as "and that goes for the bohunks, too."

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

The Pittsburgh version was "hunkie". I wonder if the Afro-American "honkie" is a variant?

 

[tonyb]

^^^^

Maybe so. I gotta look into that.

 

[HudsonHawk]

As for degaratory names, not gonna touch it as many consider my views on it non PC in this day & age. But then again, I've been called many nasty names myself, so whatever.

Avoiding the use of racial slurs isn't so much political correctness as it is simple respect and human dignity, and should transcend any particular time period.

 

[HudsonHawk]

A league was sort of common usage, I have heard it in usage up in SE Connecticut but we are seafaring folk up there & it was/is a common nautical term.

Found this though... A league is a unit of length (or, in various regions, area). It was long common in Europe and Latin America, but it is no longer an official unit in any nation. The word originally meant the distance a person could walk in an hour.[1] Since the Middle Ages, many values have been specified in several countries.

Wikipedia can be your friend, sometimes.

A league is also an old Spanish unit of area, equalling 25 million "varas" or a little over 4,400 acres. It's still used today in real estate transactions and surveying in Texas, as we have this weird mishmash of English, PLS and colonial Spanish land grant systems for land surveying.

 

[ChiTownScion]

I remember my dad telling me when I dressed slovenly that I looked like a "hoonyiak:" I thought that it was just a term that he made up.

I also remember him talking about Kashubes. I had no idea what that was, but I later found out that Kashubians are, indeed, a bona fide ethnic group from what was East Prussia and is now Poland.

 

[tonyb]

It appears that many ethnic slurs are derivative of much more polite terms. There's an alphabetical list of what must be scores of them on Wikipedia.

Intent -- what's in a person's head and heart -- carries a lot of weight. Just as I prefer being addressed by my name, and not by some nickname some other person would hang on me, I can appreciate how a person of Asian descent, for instance, would rather not be called "oriental." If that makes me PC, fine, I'm PC. (It seems that that has become just another disparaging epithet to toss, by the mentally lazy, at a person of whom some might disapprove.) Better PC than rude.

 

[HudsonHawk]

If that makes me PC, fine, I'm PC. (It seems that that has become just another disparaging epithet to toss, by the mentally lazy, at a person of whom some might disapprove.) Better PC than rude.

Amen. I'll never understand those, of any age, who insist that avoiding the use of racial slurs somehow reflects poorly on my character.

 

[LizzieMaine]

If that makes me PC, fine, I'm PC. (It seems that that has become just another disparaging epithet to toss, by the mentally lazy, at a person of whom some might disapprove.)

You can't imagine how happy I'll be when "PC" and "Not PC" disappear into the great morass of Terms Which Have Disappeared. In my experience "Hey, I'm not PC" is simply a PC euphemism for what we used to just call an a-hole.

That said, I don't make a point of going around shaming people whose use of language is not of the most current. My mother's seventy-five and still refers to "colored people," which merely reflects that she's an elderly white Mainer who has had next to no contact with African-American persons in her life.

 

[HudsonHawk]

That said, I don't make a point of going around shaming people whose use of language is not of the most current. My mother's seventy-four and still refers to "colored people," which merely reflects that she's an elderly white Mainer who has had next to no contact with African-American persons in her life.

Not knowing differently is one thing. Intentionally using racial slurs you know are offensive under the delusion that you're upholding some golden era virtue is another entirely. It's the latter that's being an a-hole.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Yes...but the newest super sensitiveness has went way beyond racial or ethnic slurs becoming an over done 'here's the latest long list of reasons to always feel offended'.
HD

 

[LizzieMaine]

Not knowing differently is one thing. Intentionally using racial slurs you know are offensive under the delusion that you're upholding some golden era virtue is another entirely. It's the latter that's being an a-hole.

Precisely. What I especially can't abide is privileged white people using racial slurs "ironically." What they really need is an unironic punch in the mouth.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Yes...but the newest super sensitiveness has went way beyond racial or ethnic slurs becoming an over done 'here's the latest long list of reasons to always feel offended'.
HD

I won't argue that many people don't seem to actively search for reasons to claim offense. But there are certain terms that are well known in their origin and connotation, and if I know they are going to offend, I don't see the virtue in using them to try to claim the moral high ground.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Whenever I hear someone say "well, They use That Word in Their Music all the time..." I know all that's missing is the pointy hood.