spic
English
[edit]
Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]First attested in this spelling in the 1910s, from earlier spig, spiggoty, spikity, generally taken to derive from a (stereotype of a) Hispanic pronunciation of "(no) speak d(e) English" (especially as used by the laborers who dug the Panama Canal).[1][2] There are also later (1960s) suggestions that the term referred instead to Italians and derives from spaghetti,[3] but there is little to back this up.[2][4]
Pronunciation
[edit]- IPA(key): /ˈspɪk/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Rhymes: -ɪk
Noun
[edit]spic (plural spics)
- (US, offensive, derogatory, ethnic slur) Synonym of Latino, an inhabitant of Latin America or person of Latin American descent.
- (US, ethnic slur, uncommon) Synonym of Italian, an inhabitant of Italy or person of Italian descent.
- 1934, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, Tender is the Night: A Romance, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC; republished as Malcolm Cowley, editor, Tender is the Night: A Romance [...] With the Author’s Final Revisions, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1951, →OCLC, book IV (Escape: 1925–1929), page 236:
- “He’s a spic” he said. He was frantic with jealousy, he didn’t want to be hurt again.
Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ “spic”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Juan Vidal, Spic-O-Rama: Where 'Spic' Comes From, And Where It's Going, NPR (2025 March 3): "There are different versions of its etymological origin story. In 1908, the Saturday Evening Post sent a reporter to Panama to write about the thousands of North American laborers digging out the canal. He kept hearing the word "spiggoty," which he learned the northerners had taken to calling Panamanians: "All Americans are alike. They do not bother to learn foreign languages when they go to a foreign country, but they force the natives to learn American. So, when the Panamanians presented themselves, if they could talk English, they prefaced their attempts to cheat the Americans out of something—it really made little difference what—with the statement, accompanied by eloquent gestures: 'Spik d' English.' If they couldn't they said: 'No spik d' English.' One or the other was the universal opening of conversation, and those early Americans soon classed the whole race of men who could or could not 'Spik d' Eng.' as 'Spikities,' and from that grew the harmonious and descriptive Spigotty.'" By 1913, spigotty appears to have shrunk to just spig, as found in the travelog of an author who took a job as a policeman in the Canal Zone, which he called "the land of the panameños, technically known on the Zone as 'Spigoties,' and familiarly, with a tinge of despite, as 'Spigs.'"
- ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “spic”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
- ^ Indeed, some early works seem to contradict it: Adam Christian Haeselbarth, Patty of the Palms: A Story of Porto Rico, page 52: '"You speaka-de-English?" "No, you speeka-de-Spanish?" "Spiggoti English! 'Spiggoti Spanish!' There, ma, I see it now. That's where that word 'Spiggoti' comes from. It has nothing to do with spaghetti at all. Spiggoty horse, Spiggoty girl, Spiggoty everything! Now, I see it! No wonder it isn't in that 'Spanish Without a Master' that I paid twenty-five cents for and you nearly let fall overboard coming down. Spiggoty, why, of course, how ridiculous! It's a Spanish word and not Italian.'
Further reading
[edit]- “spic n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present.
Anagrams
[edit]French
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from Latin spicum < spica. Doublet of épi, which was inherited.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]spic m (uncountable)
- Spike lavender
- Synonym: lavande aspic
Related terms
[edit]Further reading
[edit]- “spic”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012
Old English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Proto-West Germanic *spik, from Proto-Germanic *spiką. Cognate with Dutch spek, German Speck, and Icelandic spik.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]spiċ n
Declension
[edit]Strong a-stem:
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | spiċ | — |
| accusative | spiċ | — |
| genitive | spiċes | — |
| dative | spiċe | — |
Derived terms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]Romanian
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Inherited from Latin spīcum, alternative form of spīca.
Noun
[edit]spic n (plural spice)
Declension
[edit]| singular | plural | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| indefinite | definite | indefinite | definite | |
| nominative-accusative | spic | spicle | spic | spicle |
| genitive-dative | spic | spiclui | spic | spiclor |
| vocative | spic | spiclor | ||
Categories:
- English 1-syllable words
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- Rhymes:English/ɪk
- Rhymes:English/ɪk/1 syllable
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- American English
- English offensive terms
- English derogatory terms
- English ethnic slurs
- English terms with uncommon senses
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- French terms borrowed from Latin
- French terms derived from Latin
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- French 1-syllable words
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- Old English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
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- Old English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
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- Rhymes:Old English/it͡ʃ
- Rhymes:Old English/it͡ʃ/1 syllable
- Old English lemmas
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- ang:Meats
- Romanian terms inherited from Latin
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