The Two Larry's

C. G. Estabrook galliher at alexia.lis.uiuc.edu
Fri Dec 15 12:17:39 PST 2000


On Fri, 15 Dec 2000, Doug Henwood wrote:


> >... "sheeney." What do you think it means?

Given the surprising number of New Yorkers on this list who hadn't

heard the word before, is it possible that Lehman was unaware that

it was a term of vulgar abuse for Jews?

On Fri, 15 Dec 2000, Michael Pollak wrote:


> I think I once heard it was a corruption of the Russian equivalent of
> Yid. It another of those pre-war terms, like hymie or ikey, that died
> out in the 60s. Back in the heyday of derogatory terms, there used to
> be a million of 'em, just like for blacks or Italians or gays. Michael

That's what the OED suggests (altho' it says, "of obscure origin")

-- perhaps Polish and Czech as well -- and gives examples in

English back to 1816.

--C. G. Estabrook



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list