[House of Leaves]

Originally Posted by kungfugrip

I'm bored but only because u new kids are too nice. Text should be a nuclear warzone. Commence.

From encyclopedia.com:
...Arguably, no racial slur has been as prominent and damaging as nigger, which remains a potent epithet used against people of African descent. Use of n***** is so hurtful to African Americans that most people publicly reference it as “the N-word.” Possibly derived from niger, the Latin word meaning black [Edit*Possibly?Lol], n***** has been decidedly derogatory since the eighteenth century. The term has primarily been used by white Americans to derogate blacks as unworthy of equality due to their alleged intellectual, moral, and cultural inferiority. Although generations of white Americans used n***** as their primary term for referring to African Americans, whites would often use the slur during explicitly violent racist actions, such as lynchings, adding an implicit threat of violence to any use of the word. Despite contemporary use in popular media, sometimes by black musicians attempting to defang its potency,** n***** retains its power to insult, intimidate, and threaten African Americans...
**I'd argue it's more a pride/identity thing^^, like the closing entry below on the other slur.
-HOL edit
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From qz.com:
...While cunt’s exact origins are unknown because the word is so very old and has sounds that are common to both European and Indian languages, there’s evidence it was used throughout the ancient East and West—and not as a pejorative. For example, in The Story of V: A Natural History of Female Sexuality, published in 2003, Catherine Blackledge noted that kunthi referred to female genitalia in sanskrit. A Hindu nature goddess bore the name Kunti as well.

In addition, the word "kunt" was found in the writings of Ptah-Hotep, an Egyptian vizier who lived in the 25th century BC. It referred to women and appears to have been a term of respect.

Today, many feminists argue that c*** must be revived. One reason is simply because it’s a better descriptor for female genitalia than “vagina.” The word vagina has Latin origins, and refers to a sword sheathe—the female sex organ, in this linguistic rendition, is simply a holster for the penis.

Technically speaking, vagina refers only to the “sexual passage of the female from the vulva to the uterus.” C***, however, describes the whole shebang, external and internal, including labia, vulva, pudendum, vagina, and clitoris. Thus, it accounts for and allows female sexual pleasure. To reclaim the power of their sex, women must take back the word that best describes their sex organ, feminists argue...
-Ephrat Livni

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From npr.org:
...**Another theory is that spic is short for Hispanic, but the term "Hispanic" wasn't commonly used in the U.S. until the mid-1970s, when the Census Bureau made it an option for one's racial identification for the first time. S*** shows up in newspapers and books well before then, ruling out "Hispanic" as the origin.

S*** has long been a weapon of degradation, nestled in the same ungodly arsenal as "n*****" and "chink." There are different versions of its etymological origin story.

Although there are several theories about its origin, the origin of the term usually goes back to Panama at the beginning of the 20th century. This was how the American workers who worked on the Panama Canal referred to the Panamanian labor force. As the journalist Samuel G. Blythe explained in 1908 in the Saturday Evening Post:...
From univision.com:
..."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.'"

"It's not that clear how 'No spik d' English' sounds like 'spiggoty,'" Frances Negrón-Muntañer, a professor at the Center for Ethnic and Race Studies at Columbia University, told Univision. "But the word spiggoty turned into spig and later spic," she added...

& Back to npr.org:
...Music and films gave it a fresh nuance, and for many s*** came to represent a sense of pride in being other. In time, some decided it now meant Spanish People In Control.

The poet Emanuel Xavier says it's about empowerment. "Look at everything we have done and accomplished," he told Poetry Foundation. "It is a play on the word. We are speaking out our truths and identities in very perfect English."

By the time I was a middle schooler in the mid-90s, s*** had become a badge of honor. Finally my friends and I had a way to clap back, a chant of our own to sing out in the hallways between class...
-Juan Vidal
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From burnettfoundation.org:
...Much like who can and can’t say it, the etymology (the root) of faggot is also very contentious. The standout theory mandates f***** as a “bundle of sticks” derived from the Latin, fascis. I once read some Tumblr post that claimed the bundle of sticks were for burning because of gay death penalties or maybe something to do with witchcraft. But that’s just a hot - and unsubstantiated - urban legend.

In Yiddish, the word faygele means little bird, which I guess is pretty cute but also maybe not very relevant.

Apparently in ye olde British private schools f**ging was the practice where younger boys performed special “duties” for older boys.

This year I learned that f***** is also a type of offal meatball best served with peas and mash.

But most interesting is that in the late 16th century the word f***** was reserved as a derogatory and abusive word for women - namely older women. This is directly in line with how tightly wound together misogyny and homophobia/femmephobia are in our modern understandings of oppression - where it’s typically the derision of women that people fashion onto seemingly effeminate men.

The Oxford English Dictionary cites that the earliest written use of the word f***** appeared in a book of American slang as a slur for gay men: “All the fagots (sissies) will be dressed in drag at the ball tonight.” Sounds like a good time, even if the authors didn’t intend it so.

Because language is important
All marginalised and oppressed groups have had words weaponised against them throughout history. Whether it’s a placard scrawled with “God hates Fags,” or a hushed “faggot” pointed down a school corridor, it’s a term that most gay men have encountered in their lifetime.

In 2008 Hilary Duff released an accidentally hilarious PSA about why “you shouldn’t say something’s gay when you mean it’s bad… it’s insulting.” A win for gay rights!...
-Dejan Jotanovic
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~HOL