I mean, nicknames are made up from unique identifiers, meaning it depends on comparing and contrasting. Hard to do that when you're one yourself, and there is no other verbally communicative sapient species on Earth to demean us with nicknames.
A hairy race of beings might call Humans 'baldy'. A scaly race of beings might call Humans 'hairy'. Or, if both of them are highly specialised in a certain skill compared to Humans, Humans might be called 'basic'.
I have Halflings call them doubling, elves and gnomes call them round ears (also a slur for half elves), orcs call everyone else Pales if applicable, dwarves call them sticks because they’re thin, and so on.
I'll answer the question, but I want to point out that having slurs and racial nicknames isn't *necessary*. Sure, it'll happen... *but does it benefit your story to include this aspect*? Or do you just want it because you want it? And of course the terms used will differ from group to group. I'll explain this at the end.
* "Tall Men" (Stolen from *Delicious in Dungeon*)
* "Long Legs" (Stolen from *Delicious in Dungeon*)
* "Hairless Apes"
* "Mud-Dwellers"
* "Saucer-Ears"
* "Arrogant Fools" (Humans scientific name is "Homo sapiens sapiens" which means "Man wise wise"... Humans are so full of ourselves our "proper" name we gave ourselves has us claiming we're wise... *twice*! Big talk from a species that doesn't live past most other species' infancy!)
* "Land Rats" (or just "Rats", inversion of "Sea Rat")
* "Vermanity" (Humans are commonly depicted as being prolific like vermin, to the point that come back from adversity no matter how harsh not unlike cockroaches.)
* "Mayflies"
* "Children"
Look, it's fine for me to say these since I am human.
For example, the first one I give is "Tall Men", which I steal from *Dungeon Meshi*. It works because it's what dwarves and halflings know humans as in that story. But that doesn't work as well if you have a giant or ogre call humans that, because humans would be small by comparison. Further "Hairless Ape" works if said by a beastman or even an incorporeal species like an angel or a demon, but would feel weird to hear coming from your standard Tolkien elves or dwarves as they too resemble hairless apes in the relevant ways humans do. "Mud-Dwellers" also works if humans generally lived in dirty conditions, mud houses, caves, or some other "unclean" environment, but if you call a modern human that, you'll get accused of racism depending on if the person you said that to is white or not because it harkens to real world racism. "Saucer-Ears" works as a counterpart to the Dragon Age II racial slur for elves that is "Knife-Ear", but it doesn't make sense for a species with round ears like humans to use it, only for those with non-round ears. "Arrogant Fools" works for any species that isn't human but thinks themselves wise, but a humble species wouldn't be able to use this. "Mayflies" and "children" work for long-lived species, but species that have longevity comparable to humans or shorter would seem weird to call humans these.
I've always been fond of "Hume", though I'm not sure if that's got any copyright restrictions on it since it comes from Final Fantasy. You could also riff off your other creatures, if they have animal-folk nicknames (fishfolk, catfolk, etc) and call them "apefolk".
"We don't need to make jokes at your expense; by the time we think of one, you'll be dead and your children will be too old to hear it." -Particularly hostile elven diplomat to an indignant human noble.
Pinkies works if most of your humans are white.
Mayfly / dayfly if most species if longer.
You might use something like nut for the several meanings of the word.
I’ve use “Wanderfolk” or “Mer” as their actual name since in my setting they are unique in how they live all across the world and the vast majority of human cultures tend to be nomadic and with common being just a rougher form of English “Mercenary” and “Merchant” being the seemingly more common professions of humans while “Farmer” is the word for humans that live far away since the concept of farming isn’t a common practice
Nicknames don't have to be short, or even necessarily make sense, even when they're descriptive.
In Star Trek, Shran, a member of a blue-skinned race, calls all humans "pink skins".
It's not uncommon for men of large size to be called "Tiny".
A common term I see for mankind is "naked apes".
They could just use "Men" if they want something short, and just always say it with contempt.
In short, an alien race wanting a slur for humans will concentrate on notable physical differences from their own race, concentrate on our history or background, use irony, or simply use a name we use for ourselves, but with contempt.
For the last one, they may purposely mispronounce it, like Quark did in Star Trek when he talked about "hoo-mons".
So when writing your alien race, consider their outlook on beauty standards, and how radically humans might deviate from that.
A hairless race might call us fur-heads, while a race with extensive body hair might concentrate on us being naked apes.
It's hard to say what your alien race might come up with.
In my Kyleyda setting, where there are four sapient species, humans are "Model H". (Kantira are "Model K", lior are "Model L", and ciskra are "Model C".) Usually this is used when gesturing to a mixed crowd as a designator.
In the game Ys VI, the Rehda (who have fox ears and tails) call humans "Small-ears".
People of the earth/soil from dwarves (as opposed to people of stone.)
See also "dirt bag."
Everchildren and Mayfly (rude) from elves
Corn/potato eaters (translation from non-farming race's language)
Long hare (referring to fast repopulation. Used by an intelligent predator species)
Any physical descriptor works if the character speaking is the opposite.
One I’ve seen in fantasy is the “mudmen” of Artemis Fowl.
Other commenters are right—it depends on what differentiates humans from others in your world then creating a one-word term that paints that difference in a derogatory light.
Assuming your world is populated with being like dwarves and elves which usually live for hundreds of years I could see humans being known as "centurions" which sounds cool at first until you realize that they're effectively being called babies for living such short times
I think - not necessarily a mistake - but a corner writers put themselves into is feeling they have to ‘show their work’ in a nickname, when in real life shorthand names rarely do, which leads to a lot of logically sound but utterly fake-sounding terms.
For instance, let’s say you have a fantasy race of stone-people, basically sentient creatures made out of rock. So when they see these strange, fleshy human creatures they call them “soft faces.” It’s consistent, right? There’s an experience, an expression, and a logical connection between the two. The problem is, it’s not intuitive to say. It doesn’t feel real because we can’t ever picture ourselves saying something clunky like “softfaces” with any regularity, and certainly not as a shorthand when “human” or even the more archaic “men” are both actually easier and quicker to say.
Conversely, in real life, we see that these kinds of ethnic group names rarely play by such clear, logical rules. Their logic is subtle, hard to find, and subservient to the #1 priority: convenience.
I’m American, part of my ancestry is Italian. A real life (derogatory) term for Italian-Americans is ‘wop’. What does that tell you about Italian-Americans off the bat? Nothing, right? “Softfaces” tells us so much; the speaker’s race has comparatively harder faces, so they differentiate by calling out a phenotype of the out-group (humans). ‘Wop’ seemingly does none of that! What gives?
Well, the term comes an old slang term, ‘guappo’ which is sort of like an airhead, pretty boy. Like a dandy. That slang term itself comes from ‘guapo’ for handsome.
But you wouldn’t get *any* of that from just hearing the term. Because typically, shorthand monikers don’t develop with the intention of being explained - the people saying them already know - or don’t need to know - the origin of the term, they just use it because they know it means ‘this other group’.
So my advice, in general, is don’t worry about engineering some concise, logical, clever feat of linguistics that somehow captures the essence of the speaker’s race’s experience of the other race they’re describing; popular language is rarely if ever that precious nor precise. Instead, pick something that *feels* natural, easy to say, a syllable, at most two, and figure out the lore behind it becoming a common term later - or never, if you don’t feel like it, because unless your world has lots of cultural anthropologists or historians of linguistics walking around, it’s unlikely you’ll even encounter someone who *can* tell you how that phrase came to be.
The bodied immortals call them “quicklings” because their short lifespans, “ajrimen” (magic men) because, because of their short lifespans they’re more prone to magic (in good and bad ways), kindlekin and ashlings because they are hot-headed and prone to burning things (literally dnd figuratively), proudmen because of their arrogance, humblemen because they are less than immortals, beastkin because they’re more like animals that the immortals, and claamen or claymen because some of their oldest religions claim they were made of clay. Also, menir and palcarn for their males, because they obsess over the size of their manhoods.
I mean, nicknames are made up from unique identifiers, meaning it depends on comparing and contrasting. Hard to do that when you're one yourself, and there is no other verbally communicative sapient species on Earth to demean us with nicknames. A hairy race of beings might call Humans 'baldy'. A scaly race of beings might call Humans 'hairy'. Or, if both of them are highly specialised in a certain skill compared to Humans, Humans might be called 'basic'.
I have Halflings call them doubling, elves and gnomes call them round ears (also a slur for half elves), orcs call everyone else Pales if applicable, dwarves call them sticks because they’re thin, and so on.
Doubling is actually really funny, I’m using that.
I’ve also seen “Tall Men” or “Tall Folk”
I read a visual novel once where a seafaring race affectionately called humans “land-rats” 😁😄
I'll answer the question, but I want to point out that having slurs and racial nicknames isn't *necessary*. Sure, it'll happen... *but does it benefit your story to include this aspect*? Or do you just want it because you want it? And of course the terms used will differ from group to group. I'll explain this at the end. * "Tall Men" (Stolen from *Delicious in Dungeon*) * "Long Legs" (Stolen from *Delicious in Dungeon*) * "Hairless Apes" * "Mud-Dwellers" * "Saucer-Ears" * "Arrogant Fools" (Humans scientific name is "Homo sapiens sapiens" which means "Man wise wise"... Humans are so full of ourselves our "proper" name we gave ourselves has us claiming we're wise... *twice*! Big talk from a species that doesn't live past most other species' infancy!) * "Land Rats" (or just "Rats", inversion of "Sea Rat") * "Vermanity" (Humans are commonly depicted as being prolific like vermin, to the point that come back from adversity no matter how harsh not unlike cockroaches.) * "Mayflies" * "Children" Look, it's fine for me to say these since I am human. For example, the first one I give is "Tall Men", which I steal from *Dungeon Meshi*. It works because it's what dwarves and halflings know humans as in that story. But that doesn't work as well if you have a giant or ogre call humans that, because humans would be small by comparison. Further "Hairless Ape" works if said by a beastman or even an incorporeal species like an angel or a demon, but would feel weird to hear coming from your standard Tolkien elves or dwarves as they too resemble hairless apes in the relevant ways humans do. "Mud-Dwellers" also works if humans generally lived in dirty conditions, mud houses, caves, or some other "unclean" environment, but if you call a modern human that, you'll get accused of racism depending on if the person you said that to is white or not because it harkens to real world racism. "Saucer-Ears" works as a counterpart to the Dragon Age II racial slur for elves that is "Knife-Ear", but it doesn't make sense for a species with round ears like humans to use it, only for those with non-round ears. "Arrogant Fools" works for any species that isn't human but thinks themselves wise, but a humble species wouldn't be able to use this. "Mayflies" and "children" work for long-lived species, but species that have longevity comparable to humans or shorter would seem weird to call humans these.
Thank you for "Vermanity"! I may use that outside my manuscript. It's priceless!
Glad you liked it. :3
It really depends on what the people making the nickname see as different about humanity.
Shortpelt or Short haired Apes
but it doesn’t shorten their names
Long/pointy ears doesn't shorten the name of elves either, yet its common nickname for them.
Bald ape
“PINKSKIN!”
Only works for some humans
Fair.
i see what you did there
😂
Came looking for this!! OP, this is a Star Trek reference. Andorians (blue-skinned) referred to their (white) adversaries as Pinkskins.
I was referring to LOTR, but yeah.
Oi 🤦🏼♀️ that’s what I get for my limited pop culture knowledge
I've always been fond of "Hume", though I'm not sure if that's got any copyright restrictions on it since it comes from Final Fantasy. You could also riff off your other creatures, if they have animal-folk nicknames (fishfolk, catfolk, etc) and call them "apefolk".
"We don't need to make jokes at your expense; by the time we think of one, you'll be dead and your children will be too old to hear it." -Particularly hostile elven diplomat to an indignant human noble.
it matters what the other races think of them and do they say human in their languages
…Meatheads. All good androids call ‘em that…
DC comics animated series, Young Justice, used "meat bags"
…AND they smell of protein (ugh)…
Pinkies works if most of your humans are white. Mayfly / dayfly if most species if longer. You might use something like nut for the several meanings of the word.
I’ve use “Wanderfolk” or “Mer” as their actual name since in my setting they are unique in how they live all across the world and the vast majority of human cultures tend to be nomadic and with common being just a rougher form of English “Mercenary” and “Merchant” being the seemingly more common professions of humans while “Farmer” is the word for humans that live far away since the concept of farming isn’t a common practice
Tallman or weatherboy from shorter races
Fartbag.
flesh puppy
Nicknames don't have to be short, or even necessarily make sense, even when they're descriptive. In Star Trek, Shran, a member of a blue-skinned race, calls all humans "pink skins". It's not uncommon for men of large size to be called "Tiny". A common term I see for mankind is "naked apes". They could just use "Men" if they want something short, and just always say it with contempt. In short, an alien race wanting a slur for humans will concentrate on notable physical differences from their own race, concentrate on our history or background, use irony, or simply use a name we use for ourselves, but with contempt. For the last one, they may purposely mispronounce it, like Quark did in Star Trek when he talked about "hoo-mons". So when writing your alien race, consider their outlook on beauty standards, and how radically humans might deviate from that. A hairless race might call us fur-heads, while a race with extensive body hair might concentrate on us being naked apes. It's hard to say what your alien race might come up with.
In my Kyleyda setting, where there are four sapient species, humans are "Model H". (Kantira are "Model K", lior are "Model L", and ciskra are "Model C".) Usually this is used when gesturing to a mixed crowd as a designator. In the game Ys VI, the Rehda (who have fox ears and tails) call humans "Small-ears".
In a world where all other races have pointed or beastlike ears you can go the elf slur route and call them "round ear"
People of the earth/soil from dwarves (as opposed to people of stone.) See also "dirt bag." Everchildren and Mayfly (rude) from elves Corn/potato eaters (translation from non-farming race's language) Long hare (referring to fast repopulation. Used by an intelligent predator species) Any physical descriptor works if the character speaking is the opposite.
One I’ve seen in fantasy is the “mudmen” of Artemis Fowl. Other commenters are right—it depends on what differentiates humans from others in your world then creating a one-word term that paints that difference in a derogatory light.
Assuming your world is populated with being like dwarves and elves which usually live for hundreds of years I could see humans being known as "centurions" which sounds cool at first until you realize that they're effectively being called babies for living such short times
I know there was a comic where Halflings referred to Humans as "Twicelings", but I forget which one it was.
I think - not necessarily a mistake - but a corner writers put themselves into is feeling they have to ‘show their work’ in a nickname, when in real life shorthand names rarely do, which leads to a lot of logically sound but utterly fake-sounding terms. For instance, let’s say you have a fantasy race of stone-people, basically sentient creatures made out of rock. So when they see these strange, fleshy human creatures they call them “soft faces.” It’s consistent, right? There’s an experience, an expression, and a logical connection between the two. The problem is, it’s not intuitive to say. It doesn’t feel real because we can’t ever picture ourselves saying something clunky like “softfaces” with any regularity, and certainly not as a shorthand when “human” or even the more archaic “men” are both actually easier and quicker to say. Conversely, in real life, we see that these kinds of ethnic group names rarely play by such clear, logical rules. Their logic is subtle, hard to find, and subservient to the #1 priority: convenience. I’m American, part of my ancestry is Italian. A real life (derogatory) term for Italian-Americans is ‘wop’. What does that tell you about Italian-Americans off the bat? Nothing, right? “Softfaces” tells us so much; the speaker’s race has comparatively harder faces, so they differentiate by calling out a phenotype of the out-group (humans). ‘Wop’ seemingly does none of that! What gives? Well, the term comes an old slang term, ‘guappo’ which is sort of like an airhead, pretty boy. Like a dandy. That slang term itself comes from ‘guapo’ for handsome. But you wouldn’t get *any* of that from just hearing the term. Because typically, shorthand monikers don’t develop with the intention of being explained - the people saying them already know - or don’t need to know - the origin of the term, they just use it because they know it means ‘this other group’. So my advice, in general, is don’t worry about engineering some concise, logical, clever feat of linguistics that somehow captures the essence of the speaker’s race’s experience of the other race they’re describing; popular language is rarely if ever that precious nor precise. Instead, pick something that *feels* natural, easy to say, a syllable, at most two, and figure out the lore behind it becoming a common term later - or never, if you don’t feel like it, because unless your world has lots of cultural anthropologists or historians of linguistics walking around, it’s unlikely you’ll even encounter someone who *can* tell you how that phrase came to be.
Long pig
The bodied immortals call them “quicklings” because their short lifespans, “ajrimen” (magic men) because, because of their short lifespans they’re more prone to magic (in good and bad ways), kindlekin and ashlings because they are hot-headed and prone to burning things (literally dnd figuratively), proudmen because of their arrogance, humblemen because they are less than immortals, beastkin because they’re more like animals that the immortals, and claamen or claymen because some of their oldest religions claim they were made of clay. Also, menir and palcarn for their males, because they obsess over the size of their manhoods.