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Spic

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For other uses, see Spic (disambiguation).
Look up spic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Spic is an ethnic slur used in English speaking countries for a person of Hispanic descent. It became a common British slang word for anyone of Argentinian origin after the Falklands War between the United Kingdom and Argentina. It is known to be very offensive. It can be used as a noun or an adjective. Despite popular misconceptions, the slur was never used in reference only to Puerto Ricans. In fact, it is a slur used toward anyone of Hispanic descent, regardless of background.

For other uses, see Spic (disambiguation).
Look up spic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Spic is an ethnic slur used in English speaking countries for a person of Hispanic descent. It became a common British slang word for anyone of Argentinian origin after the Falklands War between the United Kingdom and Argentina. It is known to be very offensive. It can be used as a noun or an adjective. Despite popular misconceptions, the slur was never used in reference only to Puerto Ricans. In fact, it is a slur used toward anyone of Hispanic descent, regardless of background.

Etymology

The slur is a diminutive of the word "Hispanic"[citation needed]. .

Some Latin Americans in the United States believe the word is a play on their pronunciation of the English "speak."[1][2][3] It may also derive from "spig", which was originally used to refer to Italians, in turn from "spiggoty" (sometimes spelled "spiggity", "spigotti", or "spigoty") which may derive from "spaghetti" or "no spika de Ingles".[4] The oldest known use of "spiggoty" is in 1910 by Wilbur Lawton in Boy Aviators in Nicaragua, or, In League with the Insurgents, page 331. Stuart Berg Flexner in I hear America Talking (1976), favored the explanation that it derives from "no spik Ingles" (or "no spika de Ingles").[5] These theories follow standard naming practices, which include attacking people according to the foods they eat (see Kraut and Frog) and for their failure to speak a language (see Barbarian and Gringo).

A slur derived from "spic" is "spic and span" (first used in the African-American community in the 1950s) meaning a mixed Puerto Rican and African-American couple.[6] The phrase had legitimate currency at the time as the name of a cleaning product, "Spic and Span", before it was applied to mixed-heritage couples. This product is still sold under the same name.[7] The product took the name from a common phrase meaning extremely clean, "spick and span", which was a British idiom first recorded in 1579, and used in Samuel Pepys's diary. A spick was a spike or nail, a span was a very fresh wood chip, and thus the phrase meant clean and neat and all in place, as in being nailed down. The "span" in the idiom also is part of "brand span new", now more commonly rendered "brand spanking new", and has nothing to do with the words "Spanish" or "Hispanic".[5][4]

Another popular origin is the derogatory term for Irish people, Mick, as the root term. Irish and Hispanics are both dominantly Catholic. In the 1900's, when Irish immigrants were relatively established in the United States, but still hated by many Americans, many Hispanic immigrants made their entry into the country. They ended up sharing churches, schools and neighborhoods due to the Catholic faith and moral values they had in common. With racism and bigotry still widely accepted, other ethnic groups in the US began calling Hispanics "Spicks", as in a Spanish Mick.[8]

See also

References

The term "Spic" is used multiple times in the film "West Side Story" in reference to the Puerto Rican gang, the "Sharks"
"Spic" is also used in both of the Boondock Saints movies.

Footnotes

  1. ^ Interactive Dictionary of Racial Language Accessed April 12, 2007
  2. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language Accessed April 12, 2007
  3. ^ [Santiago, Esmeralda. When I Was Puerto Rican. New York: Vintage Books, 1993.]
  4. ^ a b Online Etymology Dictionary detailing British phrase evolving from Dutch spiksplinter nieuw, "spike-splinter new". Accessed January 16, 2007.
  5. ^ a b Take Our Word for It June 21, 1999, Issue 45 of etymology webzine. Accessed January 16, 2007. Cite error: The named reference "TOW" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  6. ^ Jonathon Green, "Spic and span", The Cassell Dictionary of Slang (1998) p. 390.
  7. ^ Spic n Span official website. Accessed January 16, 2007.
  8. ^ Urban Dictionary

Other works consulted

  • Hugh Rawson, "spic(k)" Wicked Words, (1989) p. 19.
  • John A. Simpson and Edmund S.C. Weiner, edd, "spic", The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. (1989)

See also

References

The term "Spic" is used multiple times in the film "West Side Story" in reference to the Puerto Rican gang, the "Sharks"
"Spic" is also used in both of the Boondock Saints movies.

Footnotes

Other works consulted

  • Hugh Rawson, "spic(k)" Wicked Words, (1989) p. 19.
  • John A. Simpson and Edmund S.C. Weiner, edd, "spic", The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. (1989)
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