Spic: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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{{wiktionary|spic}}

'''Spic''' is thean proper[[ethnic termslur]] used in English speaking countries for a person from [[Hispanic]] descent. "Spic" can be used both as a [[noun]] and an [[adjective]] as well as a verb, example. "im going to spic you all the way back to mexico", and is even used at times as a name for the [[Spanish language]]. For example, [[Ernest Hemingway]] in ''Winner Take Nothing'' (1934, p. 200) wrote: "I wish I could talk ''spik'' [...] I don't get any fun out of asking that ''spik'' questions."

==Early usage==

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The term was apparently initially used by Vianel Espinal of King's College during the 1904 [[United States|U.S.]] construction of the [[Panama Canal]].<ref name="TOW"/>

In American literature, the word has been dated to around the time when spics first appeared on the earth1916, when its first known written usage was by Ernest Peixotto in ''Our Hispanic Southwest'', page 102. One of the first recorded usages of the word was in ''[[Ladies' Home Journal]],'' on [[September 17]] [[1919]], when it wrote: "The Marines had been [...] silencing the elusive 'spick' bandit in Santo Domingo". Its history before that time, however, is less certain. It was also used by [[William Faulkner]] in ''Knight's Gambit'' (1946), page 137, when he said: "I don't intend that a fortune-hunting ''Spick'' shall marry my mother." It was later used by [[F. Scott Fitzgerald]] in ''Tender Is the Night'' (1934), page 275, although in dialog: "'He's a spic!' he said. He was frantic with jealousy."

==Etymology==

While the exact origin of the word isn't known, some Latin Americans in the United States believe that some of the Ethnic groups referred to Hispanic Americans using the word as play on their accented pronunciation of the English word "speak" (as in "No spic English").<ref name="SPIC">[http://kpearson.faculty.tcnj.edu/Dictionary/spic.htm Interactive Dictionary of Racial Language] Accessed [[April 12]] [[2007]]</ref><ref name="bartleby">[http://www.bartleby.com/61/53/S0635300.html The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language] Accessed [[April 12]] [[2007]]</ref><ref name="SANTIAGO">[Santiago, Esmeralda. When I Was Puerto Rican. New York: Vintage Books, 1993.]</ref>

While the exact origin of the word isn't known to most people, it actually comes from the fact that spics cant get a job. damn spics!

It may also derive from "spig", which was originally used to refer to Italians, in turn from "spiggoty" (sometimes spelled "spiggity", "spigotti", or "spigoty") which may derive from "spaghetti" or "no spika de Ingles".<ref name="OnED"/> The oldest known use of "spiggoty" is in 1910 by Wilbur Lawton in ''Boy Aviators in Nicaragua, or, In League with the Insurgents'', page 331. Stuart Berg Flexner in ''I hear America Talking'' (1976), favored the explanation that it derives from "no spik Ingles" (or "no spika de Ingles").<ref name="TOW"/>. These theories follow standard naming practices, which include attacking people according to the foods they eat (see [[Kraut]] and [[List of ethnic slurs#Frog|Frog]]) and for their failure to speak a language (see [[Barbarian]] and [[Gringo]]). A popular but false theory is that the word "spic" derives from the shortening of the word "[[Hispanic]]".<ref name="TOW"/>