In message <[log in to unmask]>, Brice Yokem
<[log in to unmask]> writing at 12:49:41 in his/her local time opines:-
>I have read where the term 'Brit' is regarded as a sort of pejorative term.
>I never thought of it that way, but considered it a slang, or abbreviation
>for British, or Briton. What say you UK residents?
I would regard 'Brit' as slightly derogatory, but would naturally make
allowances for 'Yanks' who did not perhaps realise this.
'British', or 'Britishers' is safer. 'Briton' is archaic, as in 'Ancient
Briton'.
Those serving in the Royal Navy, posted to Malta, would use 'Malt' as a
pejorative term for the locals, 'Maltese' being more polite.
In general, all such abbreviations tend to the pejorative; though 'Yank'
is an exception. We British never say 'Yankee', being vaguely aware that
this is used by some denizens of the USA to refer to some other denizens
in at least a classificatory, if not actually pejorative, way, but never
being quite sure of the distinction being drawn, or who by. So we avoid
it, just to be on the safe side.
But Yank was used, in the Second World War, to refer to the generally
unsatisfactory manufacturing standards of ladies' underwear - "One yank,
and they're off".
While the absurdly large cars you drove in the 50s, when imported to our
country which actually has bends in the roads, something your
automobiles were manifestly not constructed to deal with, were known
over here as 'Yank tanks'.
If we really want to be derogatory, though, we refer to you as
'merkins'. While this is almost a homonym for a neutral description for
you, its meaning (which goes back to, or even beyond Shakespeare's time)
is quite different.
Many of the themes in this posting, except for the last paragraph, are
happily conflated in:-
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~dexy/music/samsbar.txt
--
Roy Brown 'Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be
Kelmscott Ltd useful, or believe to be beautiful' William Morris
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