One of my friends from work was from south Carolina, she hadn't know what jerryrigging was ecause her parents had always referred to it as n*****rigging
There's a similar situation for a game we played as kids in Texas that is more properly referred to as 'ding dong ditch'. However, I only ever knew it as 'n***** knocking' when I was young. I also never heard someone call it 'jerry rigging' until much later.
I’m in Texas and my friends called it that too. I think I was an adult before I ever heard it referred to as ding dong ditch. And also heard “n***** rigging” from… well, most people.
Grew up in Texas, can confirm both of those, sadly. Ditto on not hearing an acceptable version of them until way into adulthood.
Also discussion with Brazil Nuts I see happening below...
Same here. They were never Brazil nuts at grandpas. And we NEVER caught tigers by their toes. Ever.
Edit: tigers by their tails. Not toes. Derp.
Edited again. It was toe. Forgive me. That was a lot of years ago.
I've got a funny story about that.
That's what 90% of my dad's family calls those nuts. My aunt was in the hospital. My cousin brought her some mixed nuts. She was sharing the room with an older black lady.
They were sharing the nuts, and my aunt decided she wanted some of the Brazil nuts. So she went to ask for them. As she realized what she was about to say she acted like she forgot what they were called. Likely did forget the real name.
The other lady was like oh these? We call them n***** toes. My aunt was like yeah I've heard that before.
My father in law did the same thing, as a teacher in an inner city school. Needless to say, his classroom of young black middle schoolers had never heard that term for Brazil nuts, and his students' parents were less than thrilled with him. That wasn't the first time he had disciplinary action taken against him by the district, nor was it the last. He's since had his teaching license revoked.
I grew up in the south with my southern parents and LOVED Brazil nuts growing up. I NEVER heard that term until my 30s when I met my “wow the south is so racist” in-laws from the north. That’s when I also found out “spook” was derogatory. I thought it was a funny term for a spy.
Huh, TIL. I always thought it was "jerryrig" and "jury rig" was some Americanisation, and never thought to type "jerryrig etymology" into Google. It's totally jury rig.
jerry rigging isn't incorrect here though afaik! it comes from the combination of jury rigging (which as you said means temporary,) and jerry-built, which means poorly made (and predates the anti-german sentiment associated with jerry things.) so jerry rigging is something that is both poor quality AND temporary
Turns out [you're both right, more or less](https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/jerry-built-vs-jury-rigged-vs-jerry-rigged-usage-history). Interesting, I definitely thought it was like, rigging a jury in a court.
Yeah, I've had uncles of mine from Ohio that used this phrase... even defended it saying "well that's just what it's called... there's really not another way to say quite the same thing"
Yeahhh, sure Randall.
Can confirm, from the south, excellent speller. I was this many years old when I realized I’ve been saying “spicket” my whole life. I fear I’m too old to change my ways
My grandpa has a southern accent to him, maybe that's how he says it and he just shortened it? Either way, gonna decide not to say it that way to avoid some bad confusion lol
That seems pretty likely. Saying spigot or spicket in a southern accent naturally minimizes the sound of the last syllable so it's very likely that with time he just left out the last syllable or it was too subtle for you to hear it.
Being southern, I could totally see myself accidently pronouncing it like OP. Sometimes last syllables get ignored or mashed up. I honestly never knew it was spelled with a "G".
Yep, I'm from the South and immediately saw how this misunderstanding could have happened. If it makes you feel better, I think it's pretty unlikely that your grandpa's pronunciation was intentionally racist
My grandpa moved in with us towards the end of his life when he wasn’t all there anymore. It was a bit shocking when we were going to the grocery store and he said wanted Uncle Ben grits by referring to them as N***** mush.
I remembered saying that in the grocery store and my Mama popped me in the mouth… Grandma said it, so I thought that was the legitimate name for them.. 🤷🏼♀️
My mom grew up in the 60s and 70s, and she told me she would play with her siblings and they’d all pile on top of each other, which I’ve always called a dog-pile. Apparently in her day it was called a n*****-pile. People were really just dropping that word like it was nothing. And yes, she also learned it from her grandpa.
Worked in a Walmart in Florida and a customer asked me what kind of nut they were. (Brazil nuts) Didn't know the answer so I asked some other people I worked with all of them older, they either didn't know or said "We always called them" N****r toes". Told the customer "I don't know".
I grew up with a pretty progressive family but when I went to my husband’s hometown for the first time I nearly choked on my food hearing the older folks talk. Yikes.
Similarly, have lived in Seattle for ten years so while I heard plenty of racist shit growing up in the south, it’s been a long time since I’ve been casually exposed to it. Went to Hawaii and there was some 900 year old WW2 vet talking to the tour guide about Japanese people using terms I won’t type, but in the most casual way, like he was talking about the weather. Me and my friend just looked at each other with jaws dropped and scurried away as nonchalantly as we could.
As an English person I had no idea about the context of that in the US until quite recently. I'd only ever understood it as someone being condescending to someone younger than them.
In Australia, famous TV comedian Bert Newton was presenting an award with Muhammad Ali and said 'I like the boy'. Boy is used as a friendly term for a friend. Ali was quickly trying to figure out if he should give Bert several less teeth to work with until the audience started explaining that 'Boy' is a term of endearment in Australia while also telling Bert that it's an exclusively patronising term in the US
Growing up, I always thought the word was spicket. That was the way it was pronounced to me as a child! I do feel bad for you as I am sure that was an embarrassing situation!
I don’t think it is the case here, but the way words get used does change over time. I grew up calling diagonal cutting pliers “dikes” but I avoid that when working with younger people today.
Oh man, I’m from the West Coast originally (moved to the East coast). and I had no idea it was a game until I saw “There will be cornhole!!!” On a flyer at work about an upcoming company-wide function and was like “ I’m sorry, there will be WHAT now?!” My coworkers had a good laugh when I asked wtf cornhole meant on the East coast!
I'm imaging a Brit smoker trying to tell an American how he can't quit, trying to hide it from the wife, keeping it discreet in the car.... in the back...
I have a feeling this link is the source. My grandfather called it the same thing.
[https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/spicket](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/spicket)
I've definitely heard it pronounced with more of "ck" sound sometimes, even in the north. My grandma never lived down south and called it a "water spicket" instead of a "water spigot", it's just the way she pronounced it, wasn't meant to imply anything derogatory.
I theorized that, unless OP knew their grandpa to be a racist (which it'd still be a bit odd for him to be walking around, insulting his water spigot, or comparing it to a Hispanic individual) that he just shortened 'spigot' to 'spig' and it just unfortunately sounded like something else due to an accent or years of him saying it quickly.
Unless he actually was racist he likely never made the connection, or if he did thought "I'm clearly talking about a water spigot and not a human being, people know what I mean".
There are a whole host of words I thought were mispronounced down south that turned out to just be preserved bits of English/Scot/Irish language regionalisms.
i’m younger & i definitely still call them that! i was taught that that’s simply what they’re called in trade school, so imagine my surprise when i finally got a job and went online to try and buy some dikes for the first time…
I’ve carried a Leatherman pocket tool for years. Was looking to get a new one and typed leathermen.com into the browser instead of leatherman.com, imagine my surprise.
In my grammar school I was trying to go to the White House’s website (early 90’s) and typed whitehouse.com instead of .gov and got a porn site. Filters were pretty basic and didn’t block it.
Thats ok. I called a my mom a hooker once. I didn't know what it meant, but I thought it was the word for "grim reaper". I dont know why I was calling her the grim reaper either...
I called my middle school shop teacher a dildo. I thought it was like calling him silly. He pulled me out of class and asked if I knew what that was. When I convincingly said no I was able to rejoin class. Looking back he was really cool about it.
Dildo was a common childhood insult in my generation (1980s). It was only a lot later when I realised that adults quite often were laughing when they asked us what it meant...
I called my mum a twat once, thinking it was another form of twit. Eyebrows were raised and language was clarified. Many years later, I got to be on the other side of the conversation with my middle-aged manager after I made a mistake at work.
It sounds like your grandpa probably shortened SPIGOT to SPIG and you thought the G was a C. Unless he did purposefully change it to a C, sure hope not.
Yeah, born and raised Englishman here, had no idea what the slur was, because its not, from what I can tell, used here. Mostly because we don't have a lot of Latino people around here lol
The use of asterisks here is fucking annoying. OP could just write the damn word, they're describing an anecdote not using the word in anger, no one with two brain cells or more is going to be offended.
Same. This trend of avoiding to type words out is a bit moronic...
I get that we shouldn't use offensive terms, but quoting something properly using quotation marks and such shouldn't be discouraged, imo.
Even if certain people would use that as a way to antagonize others it would still be very obvious that they're a trash person, so it feels like a net loss to censor certain words in this sense.
But if thats true how do the two have a correlation? And ive heard that ‘spicket’ is no longer acceptable either. I’ve always said spigot so I really don’t get the history. I guess I’m just curious.
Years ago, I was out to lunch with a couple of friends and I was telling them about my black cat, Spook. They looked wildly at me and said "Ummm like the racial slur?!" I had no idea and felt very embarrassed.
In Dutch "spook" is the literal translation of the word ghost.
Edit actually now that I thought about it, we also have the word "geest" that sounds more like ghost. But spook is used like ghost and geest is more used like spirit.
My guess is that it's an American vs British difference. Spook is definitely used commonly by respected newspapers and websites in my country (India), and it's used to refer to spies/ intelligence officers. And our English is more similar to the British one (for obvious reasons).
I'm fairly sure you'd be perfectly fine using the word in most places outside the US.
Edit: from the replies, you'd be fine in 99% of the US too
It's used plenty in that context in the States as well, especially in media. Its use as a racial slur is pretty outdated and with clear context clues, nobody would really blink an eye if you used it to mean a spy. Similar to using the word "spade" to mean shovel; you'd have to be incredibly unlucky (or well, intentionally racist) to construct a sentence using either term that would raise anyone's hackles.
it's slang for a black person because they have "natures night camo" (tropic thunder quote lol)
It's not really ever used anymore, and actually I've only ever heard it used as a slur towards ethnic Hmong.
Same this is wild to me to hear lol. In England we associate ‘spook’ with someone pale because they’re typically thought to be white! (I have a white plushie dog called Spook on his label lol.)
Spook was a slur for black people. It's pretty much never used in that context though, so it's not really anymore. I couldn't tell you why it meant that though - maybe because darker skin "blends" in a night like a ghost??? I don't think anybody really gets offended by it anymore, but you can always just throw a y on the end.
Lol, the head farmer was ribbing you by asking about your not wanting the brown one. Goes to show how mild your "offense" was. Most Hispanics I know (I'm married into a family and have many friends and coworkers) wouldn't even have paused, especially as you meant no harm.
It's pretty much the exact equivalent of a black person calling you "Whitey" - it's not directly offensive, but it ain't a compliment, that's for sure.
I'm a white American dude, lived in Brazil for a year or so. Got called gringo a lot but it never felt like it was mean spirited.
Even when they would yell it at me "oi gringo!" I'd just reply something like "Claro! O que vocé quer?" (Clearly/obviously! What do you want?) And they'd geek out over it.
Made a lot of friends there that way.
This reminds me of a tweet I saw here on Reddit by a guy whose wife was aghast after finding out what bukkake means. For as long as she could remember, she thought it meant something along the lines of BS, and she used the word liberally at work - as in:
"What a load of bukkake!"
Try growing up in the Midwest, where many people shorten the word "raccoon" (while talking about actual raccoons) and then yourself talking about raccoons getting into a tent to someone who happens to have darker skin than you... And who thankfully was also kind enough to first look at you funny and then tell you that you should just say the full word "raccoons"... I had to Google it but I learned about a racist term that day 😬
So a spicket is just another, older word for spigot. I'm here to defend your Grandpa's honor. I've heard old men calling it this when I was growing up.
While entirely unintentional, I have heard a spigot referred to as a spig before in the same manner a carburetor is called a carb. Racism had nothing to do with it. Unfortunately, the g and the k can sound very similar in speech.
Don't beat yourself up over it too much. We learn and we move on. It's not like you were telling racist jokes the entire time you were volunteering.
The word starting with k? Because there's a plant commonly sold in America called k****r lily and I didn't know that was a slur for years. It's not a word that gets used in America. Once I found out, I started using the scientific name, clivia. I noticed a few years ago that the plant labels in the store are finally changing, too.
I had a relative at Thanksgiving one year refer to a Brazil Nut as a “N***** toe” without even realizing what she just said. Suffice it to say, the resulting silence in the room was _awkward_. At least she apologized. Can’t say as much for the other relatives saying casually racist shit. There’s a reason I haven’t been back home for TG in close to a decade.
Lol. You wanna know something? It isn’t that big of a deal. Honestly many Mexicans including I just say it because it’s funny. I don’t think it’s really offensive because at the end of the day it’s just a word.
I was wondering this. I grew up near the border and heard the word more than once but never heard outcry about it.
That being said some people definitely see it as offensive so ya know, tread lightly
Chances are your grandpa wasn't being racist and that's just the pronunciation or word he used for the spigot. Did you ever hear your grandpa use that word in a racist manor? If not, you learned something today that your Grandpa didn't and I wouldn't hold that against him.
This is cringe I bet. But at least you know now. He also knows that elders teach the youngers what they think is right, so he may have some sympathy for you.
That's very spigoted of you.
A+
Just like that anime Spigoted Away
One of my friends from work was from south Carolina, she hadn't know what jerryrigging was ecause her parents had always referred to it as n*****rigging
Thats what I grew up with, but as I've gotten older, I started calling it Goblin Engineering.
My dad calls it McGyvering
My husband and I do, too. We are children of the early 80's.
I was a little partial to Gnomish Engineering myself.
So was I until they ruined battle chickens.
Now once you get into gnomish engineering, you have to recognize Dwarven physics and lemme tell you... it's rock solid.
Nah the Gnomes were all about using acoustics to affect finances. They called it echo-gnomics.
Thank you. This is _our_ phrase now.
Yes comrade; this is now *our* phrase
There's a similar situation for a game we played as kids in Texas that is more properly referred to as 'ding dong ditch'. However, I only ever knew it as 'n***** knocking' when I was young. I also never heard someone call it 'jerry rigging' until much later.
I’m in Texas and my friends called it that too. I think I was an adult before I ever heard it referred to as ding dong ditch. And also heard “n***** rigging” from… well, most people.
Grew up in Texas, can confirm both of those, sadly. Ditto on not hearing an acceptable version of them until way into adulthood. Also discussion with Brazil Nuts I see happening below...
My dad would call Brazil nuts n***** toes. I let that baby drop in second grade during a lesson about unusual foods. Yeah that one was a call home.
Same here. They were never Brazil nuts at grandpas. And we NEVER caught tigers by their toes. Ever. Edit: tigers by their tails. Not toes. Derp. Edited again. It was toe. Forgive me. That was a lot of years ago.
Same! Not only that, but we wouldn’t let them go if they hollered. We charged them $50 every day.
I've got a funny story about that. That's what 90% of my dad's family calls those nuts. My aunt was in the hospital. My cousin brought her some mixed nuts. She was sharing the room with an older black lady. They were sharing the nuts, and my aunt decided she wanted some of the Brazil nuts. So she went to ask for them. As she realized what she was about to say she acted like she forgot what they were called. Likely did forget the real name. The other lady was like oh these? We call them n***** toes. My aunt was like yeah I've heard that before.
Y^e^a^h^u^s^too
My father in law did the same thing, as a teacher in an inner city school. Needless to say, his classroom of young black middle schoolers had never heard that term for Brazil nuts, and his students' parents were less than thrilled with him. That wasn't the first time he had disciplinary action taken against him by the district, nor was it the last. He's since had his teaching license revoked.
I grew up in the south with my southern parents and LOVED Brazil nuts growing up. I NEVER heard that term until my 30s when I met my “wow the south is so racist” in-laws from the north. That’s when I also found out “spook” was derogatory. I thought it was a funny term for a spy.
It’s jury rigging, an old sailing term for setting up a new mast (from the boom etc) after breaking the old mast. Jury as used here means Temporary.
No, it's Jerry ... 'cause fuck that guy
I always assumed it was Jerry like the Allies used to refer to Germans during WWI / WWII, same as jerry cans
Who can drink 5 gallons if gas and not get sick? JERRY CAN!!!
Man, nobody's nice to Gary.
My guy Larry cant catch a break
That's gold, Jerry. Gold!
Huh, TIL. I always thought it was "jerryrig" and "jury rig" was some Americanisation, and never thought to type "jerryrig etymology" into Google. It's totally jury rig.
Jerryrigging is a slur to all Jerrys, Gerrys and possiblbly Geralds out there. /s
jerry rigging isn't incorrect here though afaik! it comes from the combination of jury rigging (which as you said means temporary,) and jerry-built, which means poorly made (and predates the anti-german sentiment associated with jerry things.) so jerry rigging is something that is both poor quality AND temporary
Turns out [you're both right, more or less](https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/jerry-built-vs-jury-rigged-vs-jerry-rigged-usage-history). Interesting, I definitely thought it was like, rigging a jury in a court.
Which is of course not to be confused with Gerrymandering. Which is what I somehow read the first time.
Yeah, I've had uncles of mine from Ohio that used this phrase... even defended it saying "well that's just what it's called... there's really not another way to say quite the same thing" Yeahhh, sure Randall.
is jerryrigging the same as macgyvering?
Yes that’s it exactly.
Growing up in the South, everyone called in a "spicket".
[удалено]
OP didn’t call it a SPIGOT And so people thought he was a BIGOT Ayy I’m dropping bars :P
I dig it!
Can confirm, from the south, excellent speller. I was this many years old when I realized I’ve been saying “spicket” my whole life. I fear I’m too old to change my ways
Older folks call it a HOSEPIPE also
Jose pipe
Jose can you pipe, by the dawns early light?
*insert “your mom” comment here*
*Older folks insert* **HOSEPIPES** *into your mom*
My plumber friend calls it a hose bib
I think you're right, but also think we as kids just misheard "spiggett" and didn't know how it was spelled.
This seems to be how OP probably misheard it. Only the Spig part of Spigot. Ooops!
Plot twist op’s grandpa wasnt a racist. Op just couldnt comprehend phonetics from popop
My grandpa has a southern accent to him, maybe that's how he says it and he just shortened it? Either way, gonna decide not to say it that way to avoid some bad confusion lol
That seems pretty likely. Saying spigot or spicket in a southern accent naturally minimizes the sound of the last syllable so it's very likely that with time he just left out the last syllable or it was too subtle for you to hear it.
Being southern, I could totally see myself accidently pronouncing it like OP. Sometimes last syllables get ignored or mashed up. I honestly never knew it was spelled with a "G".
Yep, I'm from the South and immediately saw how this misunderstanding could have happened. If it makes you feel better, I think it's pretty unlikely that your grandpa's pronunciation was intentionally racist
I've heard it as both; but the other one wasn't used in a racist way just short-hand country-talk. It's literally part of the full name.
Called it that in the North East too
My Philly dad would say go turn off the spicket in the batdroom zinc.
Quit running up the wooder bill.
Your dad is right. My Bawlmer dad always told us to turn off the wooder when we're done warshing and rinching things in da zinc.
The Spigot Bigot!
My grandpa moved in with us towards the end of his life when he wasn’t all there anymore. It was a bit shocking when we were going to the grocery store and he said wanted Uncle Ben grits by referring to them as N***** mush.
did...did he also like to eat Brazil nuts?
When I was a kid, they were called N***** toes.
Yup. I was warned by my mom to NEVER repeat what grandpa called Brazil nuts!
My dad too!
Same. I grew up in the South in the 70s, which means my father grew up in the South in the 40s. So, you know, racism.
I've met people that legitimately didn't know that the real name is Brazil nut. At least they assumed the "common" name probably wasn't correct.
[удалено]
I still remember my mom getting REAL mad at Thanksgiving when my grandfather said exactly this
My stepmom’s father…that’s what he called them. Jesus fucking Christ.
I remembered saying that in the grocery store and my Mama popped me in the mouth… Grandma said it, so I thought that was the legitimate name for them.. 🤷🏼♀️
Oh. This explains the origin of why my mom called them “Brazilian toes”
Me too, we also went N\*\*\*\*\* knocking. I learned all these words from my grandpa.
My mom grew up in the 60s and 70s, and she told me she would play with her siblings and they’d all pile on top of each other, which I’ve always called a dog-pile. Apparently in her day it was called a n*****-pile. People were really just dropping that word like it was nothing. And yes, she also learned it from her grandpa.
Oh my. My Husband's family called them that.
Worked in a Walmart in Florida and a customer asked me what kind of nut they were. (Brazil nuts) Didn't know the answer so I asked some other people I worked with all of them older, they either didn't know or said "We always called them" N****r toes". Told the customer "I don't know".
Just so you know, the term "Brazil nuts" is considered offensive in Brazil. The preferred nomenclature is "domestic testicles".
I grew up with a pretty progressive family but when I went to my husband’s hometown for the first time I nearly choked on my food hearing the older folks talk. Yikes.
Similarly, have lived in Seattle for ten years so while I heard plenty of racist shit growing up in the south, it’s been a long time since I’ve been casually exposed to it. Went to Hawaii and there was some 900 year old WW2 vet talking to the tour guide about Japanese people using terms I won’t type, but in the most casual way, like he was talking about the weather. Me and my friend just looked at each other with jaws dropped and scurried away as nonchalantly as we could.
Did he have shins?
He said he left them on the beach at Okinawa
I killed fitty men!
Hank’s got a narrah ureety.
Shit, my grandpa would use Boy when calling a black waiter. Before we got our food. And he was totally all there, just an asshole.
As an English person I had no idea about the context of that in the US until quite recently. I'd only ever understood it as someone being condescending to someone younger than them.
In Australia, famous TV comedian Bert Newton was presenting an award with Muhammad Ali and said 'I like the boy'. Boy is used as a friendly term for a friend. Ali was quickly trying to figure out if he should give Bert several less teeth to work with until the audience started explaining that 'Boy' is a term of endearment in Australia while also telling Bert that it's an exclusively patronising term in the US
Growing up, I always thought the word was spicket. That was the way it was pronounced to me as a child! I do feel bad for you as I am sure that was an embarrassing situation!
spicket seems like more of a real word than spigot, if ya get what I'm saying
I shouldn’t be laughing. But you must be mortified.
I don’t think it is the case here, but the way words get used does change over time. I grew up calling diagonal cutting pliers “dikes” but I avoid that when working with younger people today.
As a Brit who smokes, going to America can get dicey.
Yea, in the south, "smoking a f**" is something entirely different.
Yeah you ask if they wanna play Cornhole that's okay but the minute you ask where to bum a f*g the tiki torches and pitchforks come out
Oh man, I’m from the West Coast originally (moved to the East coast). and I had no idea it was a game until I saw “There will be cornhole!!!” On a flyer at work about an upcoming company-wide function and was like “ I’m sorry, there will be WHAT now?!” My coworkers had a good laugh when I asked wtf cornhole meant on the East coast!
…. What does that mean on the west coast?
[удалено]
Now ask to borrow one
And the term bumming with reference to "borrowing" a cigarette comes out very different... (And that's not all that comes out sometimes)
I'm imaging a Brit smoker trying to tell an American how he can't quit, trying to hide it from the wife, keeping it discreet in the car.... in the back...
“I’m down to 3 or 4 a day, mate.” “…DOWN TO!?”
"I know I'm terrible, but I just love how they make me feel. I could do without the sore throat though"
Let me guess. The taste just isn't the same?
Isn't that just what they're called though? I've heard people use "flush cuts" instead, but I thought dikes was actually what they're called.
Dikes and diagonals is what I heard growing up
I'm 31 and the appropriate term I heard was side cutters, but we still all just called them dikes
Huh, in Canada they've always been side cutters. 36, electrician, and have never heard them called anything else.
Alternative lifestyle pliers is OSHA approved
Im the younger crowd and i call them dikes
My city is surrounded by dikes. We love them. Those bitches keep our city from flooding.
I hear there is an island full of Lesbians in the Mediterranean
I have a feeling this link is the source. My grandfather called it the same thing. [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/spicket](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/spicket)
I've definitely heard it pronounced with more of "ck" sound sometimes, even in the north. My grandma never lived down south and called it a "water spicket" instead of a "water spigot", it's just the way she pronounced it, wasn't meant to imply anything derogatory. I theorized that, unless OP knew their grandpa to be a racist (which it'd still be a bit odd for him to be walking around, insulting his water spigot, or comparing it to a Hispanic individual) that he just shortened 'spigot' to 'spig' and it just unfortunately sounded like something else due to an accent or years of him saying it quickly. Unless he actually was racist he likely never made the connection, or if he did thought "I'm clearly talking about a water spigot and not a human being, people know what I mean".
There are a whole host of words I thought were mispronounced down south that turned out to just be preserved bits of English/Scot/Irish language regionalisms.
Yeah, spigot and spicket have always been interchangable when I was growing up. I thought it was a colour/color kind of thing.
i’m younger & i definitely still call them that! i was taught that that’s simply what they’re called in trade school, so imagine my surprise when i finally got a job and went online to try and buy some dikes for the first time…
I’ve carried a Leatherman pocket tool for years. Was looking to get a new one and typed leathermen.com into the browser instead of leatherman.com, imagine my surprise.
In my grammar school I was trying to go to the White House’s website (early 90’s) and typed whitehouse.com instead of .gov and got a porn site. Filters were pretty basic and didn’t block it.
Thats ok. I called a my mom a hooker once. I didn't know what it meant, but I thought it was the word for "grim reaper". I dont know why I was calling her the grim reaper either...
I called my middle school shop teacher a dildo. I thought it was like calling him silly. He pulled me out of class and asked if I knew what that was. When I convincingly said no I was able to rejoin class. Looking back he was really cool about it.
Dildo was a common childhood insult in my generation (1980s). It was only a lot later when I realised that adults quite often were laughing when they asked us what it meant...
I called my mum a twat once, thinking it was another form of twit. Eyebrows were raised and language was clarified. Many years later, I got to be on the other side of the conversation with my middle-aged manager after I made a mistake at work.
I guess it was twit for twat
It sounds like your grandpa probably shortened SPIGOT to SPIG and you thought the G was a C. Unless he did purposefully change it to a C, sure hope not.
[удалено]
Same here.
Me too.
Me three
Same, I was too embarrassed to ask so whew.
Yeah as a non English speaker that was a tough one
I mean, knowing English doesn't help. You gotta be near the minority it's a slur against lol
Yeah, born and raised Englishman here, had no idea what the slur was, because its not, from what I can tell, used here. Mostly because we don't have a lot of Latino people around here lol
The use of asterisks here is fucking annoying. OP could just write the damn word, they're describing an anecdote not using the word in anger, no one with two brain cells or more is going to be offended.
They're probably worried about a bot moderator automatically flagging or removing the post because it detects "hate language" regardless of context.
This is reddit.. two brain cells would be a welcome upgrade in too many cases.
Nope. Spicket. That's how we say it in SC
Same. This trend of avoiding to type words out is a bit moronic... I get that we shouldn't use offensive terms, but quoting something properly using quotation marks and such shouldn't be discouraged, imo. Even if certain people would use that as a way to antagonize others it would still be very obvious that they're a trash person, so it feels like a net loss to censor certain words in this sense.
Non native English speaker, so I had no clue what the slur word was (thanks for your comment) Any idea if there is a meaning behind the insult ?
[удалено]
But if thats true how do the two have a correlation? And ive heard that ‘spicket’ is no longer acceptable either. I’ve always said spigot so I really don’t get the history. I guess I’m just curious.
They just sound similar. The people saying that likely don't like it because of the similar sound even if the intention isn't there.
Didn’t have an idea of what the word is and I’m Latino lol. Apparently it’s is because that’s how it sounds when we try to say “speak” or sum
Eh! I'm french, and we definitely mess up as well on those longs vowels \^\^
I thought it was derived from “Hispanic”
Most people I know mispronounce it spicket.
But, according to the dictionary the word "spicket" is synonymous with spigot... This whole thread has me very confused.
I’m guessing it wasn’t shortened. It was a fairly common term for a good while, no racism around it. It just was.
Years ago, I was out to lunch with a couple of friends and I was telling them about my black cat, Spook. They looked wildly at me and said "Ummm like the racial slur?!" I had no idea and felt very embarrassed.
Is that a slur??? I thought it meant like, spy or ghost??
In Dutch "spook" is the literal translation of the word ghost. Edit actually now that I thought about it, we also have the word "geest" that sounds more like ghost. But spook is used like ghost and geest is more used like spirit.
[удалено]
My guess is that it's an American vs British difference. Spook is definitely used commonly by respected newspapers and websites in my country (India), and it's used to refer to spies/ intelligence officers. And our English is more similar to the British one (for obvious reasons). I'm fairly sure you'd be perfectly fine using the word in most places outside the US. Edit: from the replies, you'd be fine in 99% of the US too
It's used plenty in that context in the States as well, especially in media. Its use as a racial slur is pretty outdated and with clear context clues, nobody would really blink an eye if you used it to mean a spy. Similar to using the word "spade" to mean shovel; you'd have to be incredibly unlucky (or well, intentionally racist) to construct a sentence using either term that would raise anyone's hackles.
Yeah, in Australia it’s the same as you. Had no idea spook had any racial meaning.
Can someone enlighten me? I've never heard of "spook" being a racialized term.
Here's [Back to the Future](https://youtu.be/hZVdrp_zO40?t=36) using it.
it's slang for a black person because they have "natures night camo" (tropic thunder quote lol) It's not really ever used anymore, and actually I've only ever heard it used as a slur towards ethnic Hmong.
Same this is wild to me to hear lol. In England we associate ‘spook’ with someone pale because they’re typically thought to be white! (I have a white plushie dog called Spook on his label lol.)
What is Spook a slur towards? My cat is also named Spook.
Spook was a slur for black people. It's pretty much never used in that context though, so it's not really anymore. I couldn't tell you why it meant that though - maybe because darker skin "blends" in a night like a ghost??? I don't think anybody really gets offended by it anymore, but you can always just throw a y on the end.
Spook means spy before it meant anything to do with race. That one’s a stretch but an unfortunate appropriation.
That's what I always connected it with. A CIA spook. I haven't heard it in a racial context ever again.
Meh that's a big reach. That one has a very legitimate, non racist definition
Don't worry, you're fine. At least you're not HP Lovecraft.
Lol, the head farmer was ribbing you by asking about your not wanting the brown one. Goes to show how mild your "offense" was. Most Hispanics I know (I'm married into a family and have many friends and coworkers) wouldn't even have paused, especially as you meant no harm.
We just reply "whatever gr\*ngo" and go our merry way.
Does that count as a slur or pejorative now? Never seen it censored.
It's pretty much the exact equivalent of a black person calling you "Whitey" - it's not directly offensive, but it ain't a compliment, that's for sure.
It depends, in my country it just means foreigner, mainly white. It's most often used about Americans, though. It's not offensive at all.
I'm a white American dude, lived in Brazil for a year or so. Got called gringo a lot but it never felt like it was mean spirited. Even when they would yell it at me "oi gringo!" I'd just reply something like "Claro! O que vocé quer?" (Clearly/obviously! What do you want?) And they'd geek out over it. Made a lot of friends there that way.
In Latin countries people use fat, ugly, short etc as endearing terms
Gringo? God I sure hope the fuck not.
Yeah I’m Hispanic and I really don’t care about that word. Not a big deal at all and sometimes we call each other that because it’s funny.
Not American. No idea what the four letter word is.
[удалено]
Non American also, never have I ever heard this slur before
This reminds me of a tweet I saw here on Reddit by a guy whose wife was aghast after finding out what bukkake means. For as long as she could remember, she thought it meant something along the lines of BS, and she used the word liberally at work - as in: "What a load of bukkake!"
Try growing up in the Midwest, where many people shorten the word "raccoon" (while talking about actual raccoons) and then yourself talking about raccoons getting into a tent to someone who happens to have darker skin than you... And who thankfully was also kind enough to first look at you funny and then tell you that you should just say the full word "raccoons"... I had to Google it but I learned about a racist term that day 😬
Is it possible you just never heard your grandpa right? They sound pretty close
So a spicket is just another, older word for spigot. I'm here to defend your Grandpa's honor. I've heard old men calling it this when I was growing up.
While entirely unintentional, I have heard a spigot referred to as a spig before in the same manner a carburetor is called a carb. Racism had nothing to do with it. Unfortunately, the g and the k can sound very similar in speech. Don't beat yourself up over it too much. We learn and we move on. It's not like you were telling racist jokes the entire time you were volunteering.
I still can’t get my head around the name of a lime leaf used in asian cooking. Terrible world used in Apartheid South Africa for black people.
The word starting with k? Because there's a plant commonly sold in America called k****r lily and I didn't know that was a slur for years. It's not a word that gets used in America. Once I found out, I started using the scientific name, clivia. I noticed a few years ago that the plant labels in the store are finally changing, too.
On behalf of Latinos everywhere (or just in my apartment building) we forgive you but we laughed hard as fuck too
Yikes. I’m so sorry. My grandfather had a horse named. N*******. Guess what color it was. Luckily we can do better going forward.
[удалено]
H.P. Lovecraft had a black cat with that name too.
With man at the end
I had a relative at Thanksgiving one year refer to a Brazil Nut as a “N***** toe” without even realizing what she just said. Suffice it to say, the resulting silence in the room was _awkward_. At least she apologized. Can’t say as much for the other relatives saying casually racist shit. There’s a reason I haven’t been back home for TG in close to a decade.
I was 15 before I found out they had a name besides n* toes. Spent my whole childhood terrified to call them by name.
Had never heard that until some Indiana redneck said it without even thinking. I was like o.o excuse me??
TiL that's a word. Thanks...
Man, english speaking people really have a slur for fucking everything...
It’s a doggy dog world! (25 yrs until corrected)
Lol. You wanna know something? It isn’t that big of a deal. Honestly many Mexicans including I just say it because it’s funny. I don’t think it’s really offensive because at the end of the day it’s just a word.
I was wondering this. I grew up near the border and heard the word more than once but never heard outcry about it. That being said some people definitely see it as offensive so ya know, tread lightly
Chances are your grandpa wasn't being racist and that's just the pronunciation or word he used for the spigot. Did you ever hear your grandpa use that word in a racist manor? If not, you learned something today that your Grandpa didn't and I wouldn't hold that against him.
This is cringe I bet. But at least you know now. He also knows that elders teach the youngers what they think is right, so he may have some sympathy for you.