Top 10 Words You Will Not Believe are or Were Slurs

These words are words that sound innocent in our modern world, but have dark origins. Shocking, isn't it? Well, you learn something new everyday. Note: If there are quotes I copied and pasted what I learned.

I got this idea from Mikeramp72 (who unless you're Powell who told me checked him out after I mentioned him a couple times in DMs, you've probably never heard of) from his worst hit songs of 2020 list for the first entry.
The Top Ten
1 Savage

Today it's viewed as a word that means "cool" or "epic" or something like that, but the history goes back centuries. From some research, it was used to describe indigenous people as "below human" to justify abusing them. And look how that usage has aged. Not well, huh.

Nowadays, even Native Americans use the term.

I think that "savage" is actually normally used for the "older" purpose, but whatever.

2 Hysterical

Today's definition: hilarious/extremely funny.
Original definition: "Hysterical" comes from the Greek word for "womb." It was once believed that hysteria was a disorder only suffered by women and caused by disturbances in the uterus.

3 Redskin

Yeah, sorry to Washington football fans, but: "Redskin" is a slang term for Native Americans in the United States and First Nations in Canada. It was used as a racial slur towards the Natives for their skin color.

4 Cakewalk

Apparently, the word was a slave trade term and a slur to people who were... well, traded slaves, I guess.

I must admit I didn't know this term at all.

5 Eskimo

"Eskimo" comes from the same Danish word borrowed from Algonquin, "ashkimeq," which literally means "eaters of raw meat." Other etymological research suggests it could mean "snowshoe-netter" too.

Nowadays, this term is so ingrained in society that we have it in lyrics for Christmas songs and jokes (Eskimos have 100 words for ice...).

6 Fuzzy-wuzzy

It's not a bear. "Fuzzy-wuzzy" was a racist term for Black people (from Africa, Australia, or Papua New Guinea), stereotyped for their hair texture. The term was used by British soldiers in the 1800s. The offensive term then made its way into a nursery rhyme and a Rudyard Kipling poem.

Yep, the Jungle Book guy used it to NOT refer to Baloo, but someone else.

7 Moron

It's not just someone who's dumb. It was originally used to discriminate against someone with disabilities, which is depressing.

YouTube censors the word in captions now, even in kids' media like SpongeBob and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

8 Uppity

The Atlantic reports that during segregation, racist southerners used "uppity" to describe Black people "who didn't know their place," socioeconomically speaking. Originally, the term started within the Black community, but racists adopted it pretty quickly. Y'all must have treated it wrong.

9 Gyp

Here it goes back to the 1500s: "Sweeping laws against the Romani people were widespread in many European countries. In Britain, a 1530 law banned Romani people from entering the country and forced those already living there to leave within 16 days."

10 Blacklist

This is a very fascinating one.

The Contenders
11 Bitch

Before becoming "just another swear," the word was a sexist slur.

12 ABCD
13 Jock
14 Skinny
15 Cat
16 Trap

Initially used to refer to crossdressing anime characters, some transgender people find the word "trap" offensive. It could give others the impression that they are crossdressing to trick someone into thinking they're the opposite gender, which isn't the case.

17 Fruit

"Fruit" was used to describe effeminate men, and from there it became a gay slur. It's not as widely used as other gay slurs, but some people still use it.

18 Ape
19 Frog
20 Hunk
21 Midget

It's often considered offensive by people with dwarfism. Use dwarf or little person instead when describing someone with dwarfism.

22 Spastic
23 Gypsy
24 Retard
25 Retarded
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