Ethnic and place names are often used as derisive adjectives.[1][2]

Most of these derisive adjectives reflect stereotypes about the ethnicity or the place. Most are pejorative and some are offensive.

African dominoes
Dice.[1]
African golf
Craps.[1]
Arizona cloudburst
A sandstorm.[2]
Arizona paint job
An unpainted, weathered pine building.[1]
Arkansas asphalt
A road made of logs.[2]
Arkansas fire extinguisher
A chamberpot.[1]
Arkansas toothpick
A knife with an extra-legal blade.[1]
Aztec hop
Dysentary or diarrhea.[1]
Baltimore beef steak
Liver.[1]
Boston strawberries
Beans.[1]
Bronx cheer.[1]
California Bible
= California prayer book.[1]
California bank notes
Silver and hides used as money.[2]
California breakfast
A cigarette and an orange.[1]
California prayer book
A deck of cards.[1]
California toothpick
= Arkansas toothpick.[1]
Cape Ann turkey
= Cape Cod turkey[1]
Cape Cod turkey
Codfish.[1]
Chicago overcoat
cement shoes or a coffin.[1]
Chicago piano
A Thompson submachine gun.[1]
Chinaman's chance
No chance at all.[2]
Chinese fire drill[1]
Chinese B
A grade inflated to compensate for a student's disadvantage.[2]
Cincinnati quail
= Confederate beef.[1]
Colored peoples'/folks' time
Late.[1][2]
Confederate beef/mule
Fatty salt pork.[1]
Connecticut mile
The distance traveled in one minute.[1]
Curse of Montezuma
= Aztec hop.[1]
Dago red
Cheap red wine.[1]
Dallas special
= Arkansas toothpick.[1]
Detroit iron
An American car.[1]
Detroit sled
= Detroit iron.[1]
Dutch act
Suicide.[2]
Dutch courage
Courage from drunkenness.[2]
Dutch leave
= French leave.[1]
Dutch rub
A kind of torture between children.[2]
Dutch treat[1]
Dutch uncle
An affectionate, older friend, remotely related person, or someone who reprimands severely.[1]
Ethiopian paradise
= Nigger heaven[1]
French inhale
Exhaling smoke from the mouth and then inhaling it through the nose.[1]
French kiss[1]
French leave[1]
Haight Street breakfast
Muscatel and Wheaties.[1]
Indian giver[1]
Indian haircut
A scalping.[1]
Irish banjo
A shovel.[1]
Irish confetti
Bricks and cobblestones thrown during street fights.[1]
Irish pendants/pennants
Rags or laundry hung up to dry on board ship.[1][2]
Irish shift/switch
Describes a politician talking to one person with his arm around another, smiling all the while at a third.[1]
Irish twins
Siblings born within the same calendar year, or within twelve months of each other.
Irishman's buggy
A wheelbarrow.[2]
Irishman's turkey
Corned beef and cabbage.[2]
Jew flag
A dollar bill.[2]
Jew shave
An unshaven face covered with talcum powder.[2]
Jewish overdrive
= Mexican overdrive.[1]
Jewish side-walls
= Mexican side-walls[1]
Jewish time
Late.[1]
Jewish windbreaker
A mink coat.[2]
Jigaboo joy shop
A store which sells chrome accessories for automobiles.[1]
Kansas nigger
An African-American who does not defer to whites.[2]
Kentucky credit card
= Mexican credit card.[1]
Kentucky oysters
= Rocky Mountain oysters.[1]
Kentucky windage
Compensating for wind or misaligned rifle sights by aiming off target.[1]
Mahon soger
A lazy and worthless sailor.[2]
Mexican standoff[1]
Mexican Bogner's
Jeans worn as ski pants.[1]
Mexican breakfast
A cigarette and a glass of water.[1]
Mexican car wash
Leaving an automobile out in the rain.[1]
Mexican cashmere
A sweatshirt.[1]
Mexican chrome
Silver-color paint used to decorate a car.[1]
Mexican credit card
A siphon for stealing gasoline.[1]
Mexican dragline
A shovel.[1]
Mexican filling station
= Mexican credit card.[1]
Mexican fox-trot
= Aztec hop.[1]
Mexican motor mount
Inner tubing used instead of proper parts.[1]
Mexican muffler
A can stuffed with steel wool on an exhaust pipe.[1]
Mexican nose guard
Jockstrap.[1]
Mexican overdrive
Driving downhill in neutral.[1]
Mexican promotion
An increase in rank or title without a pay raise.[1]
Mexican side-walls
Painted tires.[1]
Mexican straight
In poker, any five cards and a sharp knife.[1]
Mexican threads
A stripped bolt forced into a hole to cut new threads.[1]
Mexican toothache
= Aztec hop.[1]
Mexican two-step
= Aztec hop.[1]
Mexican valve job
Cleaning a carburetor with kerosene.[1]
Mexican window shade
A Venetian blind mounted in the rear window of a car.[1]
Milwaukee goiter
A beer belly.[1]
Mississippi marbles
Dice.[1]
Montezuma's revenge
= Aztec hop.[1]
Mountain dew
Moonshine.[2]
Mountain oysters
= Rocky Mountain oysters.[1]
Nigger bait
(Excess) chrome on an automobile.[1]
Nigger fishing
Fishing for low-value fish with a pole and bobber.[2]
Nigger heaven
The cheapest balcony seats in a theater.[1]
Nigger rich
Either rich and ostentatious or rich one day, poor the next.[1]
Oklahoma credit card
= Mexican credit card.[1]
Oklahoma guarantee
No guarantee.[2]
Oklahoma showup
A falsified police line-up.[1]
Oregon beef
Deer killed out of season.[1]
Pennsylvania salve
Apple butter.[1]
Philadelphia lawyer
A crooked lawyer.[1]
Polish air conditioning
Driving with the windows down.[1]
Prairie coal
Cow dung used as fuel.[2]
Prairie oysters
= Rocky Mountain oysters[2]
Puerto Rico Pendleton
An old work shirt.[1]
Rocky Mountain oysters[2]
Rocky Mountain canary
A burro.[1]
Russian roulette[1]
Scotch mist
Dense mist-like rain.[2]
Scotch woodcock[2]
Scotsman's Zoo
A viewpoint from which a zoo can be seen without paying.[2]
Spanish flu
The 1918 pandemic flu. It was associated to Spain since, in other countries, the World War I censorship blocked local reports to preserve morale. [3]
Spanish supper
Tightening of the belt a notch instead of eating.[1]
Swedish headache
Pain from sexual arousal without sexual release (cf. Blue balls).[2]
Texas butter
Gravy made from bacon grease, flour, and water.[1]
Texas oysters
Rocky Mountain oysters[2]
Texas squirrels
Prairie dogs used as food.[2]
Tijuana Bible
Pornographic comic books.[1]
Vatican roulette
Calendar-based contraceptive methods.[1]
Welsh rabbit[2]
West Indian Time
Late.[1]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 Ed Cray, "Ethnic and Place Names as Derisive Adjectives", Western Folklore 21:1:27–34 (January 1962), p. 27-34 JSTOR 1520639
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Kenneth Porter, "Still More Ethnic and Place Names as Derisive Adjectives", Western Folklore 25:1:37–40 (January 1966) JSTOR 1498597
  3. ↑ "Spanish flu facts". Channel 4 News. Archived from the original on 27 January 2010.
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