Chinaman

See also: chinaman

English

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Chinese Pidgin English. Calque of Mandarin 中國人／中国人 (Zhōngguórén), China +‎ -man. Applied also to ships by analogy with East Indiaman.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtʃaɪnəmən/, /ˈtʃaɪnəmɪn/

Noun

Chinaman (plural Chinamen)

1. (dated, now offensive) A man who is Chinese, a Chinese man.
   • 1872, Mark Twain, Roughing It, 2007, page 169,

     A disorderly Chinaman is rare, and a lazy one does not exist. So long as a Chinaman has strength to use his hands he needs no support from anybody; white men often complain of want of work, but a Chinaman offers no such complaint; he always manages to find something to do. […] Any white man can swear a Chinaman’s life away in the courts, but no Chinaman can testify against a white man.

   • 1906, Hubert D. Russell (editor), Complete Story of the San Francisco Horror, 1906, 2003, page 251,

     Another favorite pastime of the Highbinder who is usually a loafer, is to levy blackmail on a wealthy Chinaman. […] If it were not that the Chinamen kill only men of their own race and let alone all other men, the citizens of San Francisco would have sacked and burned Chinatown.

   • 1941, George Ade, Stories of the Streets and of the Town: From the Chicago Record 1893 - 1900, reprinted as 2003, Stories of Chicago, page 163,

     In Clark Street, where all the nations of the earth dwell together in harmony, one has but to go downstairs to find a Chinaman. And when found he is washing.

2. A sailing ship of the 18th and 19th centuries engaged in the Old China Trade
3. (US, slang) Withdrawal from a narcotic, especially heroin. [from 20th c.]
   • 1952, William S. Burroughs, in Harris (ed.), Letters 1945–59, Penguin 2009, p. 140:

     Chinaman half in and half out of the door. Codeine and goof balls, and complete discouragement.

Usage notes

• For more on the usage of this term, see Wikipedia's article on it.

Coordinate terms

• Chinawoman

Derived terms

• Chinaman's chance, Chinaman's chance in Hell
• John Chinaman, Johnny Chinaman
• must have killed a Chinaman

Translations

a man who is Chinese, a Chinese man

• Danish: kinamand c, kineser (da) c
• Finnish: (degatory) kinukki
• French: Chinois (fr) m
• German: Chinese (de) m
• Greek: Κινέζος (el) m (Kinézos)
• Hawaiian: Pākē
• Indonesian: orang Cina, singkek (id)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kinamann m, kineser (no) m

  Nynorsk: kinamann m, kinesar (nn) m

• Polish: chinol m
• Romanian: chinez (ro) m
• Yiddish: כינעזער m (khinezer)

Anagrams

• chainman