In this etymological treasury of words, I found the chapter ‘How Nations Insult Each Other’ the most amusing
In this etymological treasury of words collected by Lahore scholar Khaled Ahmed, I found the chapter ‘How Nations Insult Each Other’ the most amusing. Arabs looked down on other races. For Persians, they used the word ajain, which means dumb. The Persians retaliated by calling Arabs Tazi, meaning horse. Greeks called non-Greek speakers barbarous. Romans brought Bulgarian slaves to their city and noted that they indulged a lot in sodomy. The English word bugger was born. The English referred to the French as frogs and condoms as French letters and syphilis as French pox. The French retaliated by calling condoms as capote Anglais. The Dutch were at the receiving end of many English words: Dutch courage for cowardice, Double Dutch for something incomprehensible, Dutch widow for a prostitute. And so on: liaisons between different languages has produced thousands of lovable bastards.