Ghetto - more hijacked American

[Thadeus]

I didn't want to hijack another thread to talk about a hijacked word... GHETTO.

I always thought about ghetto word as typical american word. ... It does strangely feels out of place as soon as it's not a reference to an american idea, you are 100% correct.

I am relatively young [30s] and American and I have always, always associated the word "ghetto" with Jews in Warsaw, Poland. I mean I watched "Good Times" when I was a kid and heard "JJ" refer to the ghetto as an African- American concept as well, but it was always Jewish to me... Maybe it was the German nuns in Catholic elementary school that planted that seed.

Reference:

[GHETTO] The word historically referred specifically to the Venetian Ghetto in Venice, where Jews were required to live; it may derive from the Italian getto, which means both casting, and "to throw out" (from the Italian verb gettare), both references to the iron foundry which lay adjacent to the site selected for the Ghetto Nuovo. It was later applied to neighborhoods in other cities where Jews were required to live. The corresponding German term was Judengasse; in Moroccan Arabic ghettos were called mellah. The term now commonly labels any poverty-stricken urban area.

 

[sleipnir214]

I once read that it is not true to say that English borrows words from other languages, but rather it is more correct to say that English actively mugs other languages to rob them of their linguistic treasures.

Reading the Wikipedia article you quoted, it seems to me that the word ghetto had been going through a process of being used in a more and more general sense for centuries. The 20th century seems to be only the current culmination of that process, as I've also seen ghetto used in a metaphorical sense of describing ideas that are in the edges of what is acceptible.


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[GwydionM]

Every language absorbs words from other languages. Words also change massively from their original meaning - check 'officious', 'philanderer' etc. Even 'computer' originally meant a human who was good at doing sums.

------------------------------
An old man who lives in the UK

 

[tsdragon]

ghetto has also been used as a verb, i.e. "to ghettoize". It is generally used to mean the process of compartmentalizing or separating a group and forcing them to the fringes of society.

Tracy Dryden

Meddle not in the affairs of dragons,
For you are crunchy, and good with mustard.

 

[gbaughma]

So, what's the french word for Croissant?



Just my 2¢

"In order to start solving a problem, one must first identify its owner." --Me
--Greg

 

[Dollie]

I've always wondered if the French ate french toast, but that's just the ghetto coming out in me.

 

[gbaughma]

You know, that whole "Freedom" thing really bugged me. When people refused to say "french".

"Freedom Fries", "Freedom Toast".... and of course, you can't forget... the "Freedom Tickler"..



Just my 2¢

"In order to start solving a problem, one must first identify its owner." --Me
--Greg

 

[Dollie]

Greg,

That post should have had a "C&C" warning... put down the coffee, get the cat off your lap. Much safer when bursting out laughing.

 

[gbaughma]

Nice to know that somewhere in this big world, I caused someone to smile today.



Just my 2¢

"In order to start solving a problem, one must first identify its owner." --Me
--Greg

 

[mjldba]

More than one smile provided, friend, more than one.

And your comment reminded me that we should not have been disappointed when the French refused to join us in our little foray into Iraq 'cause going to war without the French is like going hunting without a tuba.

 

[KenCunningham]

Hmmm. Tell that to Napoleon!

 

[columb]

mjldba Beware political statements in this (or any other) forum. The history forum got closed down because it turned into flame wars over opinions like that.

Columb Healy

 

[CRilliterate]

Napoleon was Italian...but I'll stick to columb's advise.

________________________________________
I am using Windows XP, Crystal Reports 9.0 with SQL Server

 

[KenCunningham]

Interesting:

On 15 May, 1768, France and Genoa signed a treaty, on the terms of which France was to take possession of Corsica and keep it until Genoa could pay back what it owed to France. In reality, France bought Corsica, spending 40 million livres. Then on 15 August of the same year an edict was passed linking Corsica to France. Certain of Napoleon Bonaparte's detractors declared that he was not French because he was born in 1768 and not 1769, and that his date of birth had been falsified, it being unthinkable that the emperor of the French not be French himself. However, no serious proof has ever been produced to challenge the accepted date of 1769.

 

[Dollie]

40 million livers sounds like a lot to me....

 

[Trevoke]

Mjldba : Warning, friend. Some here may not be of the same nationality as you... Me included.

Dollie, gbaughma : Let's not forget the freedom kissing. Also, 'french toast' is silly because the French don't use maple syrup. The Canadians, maybe.

CRIlliterate : He was from Corsica, so he was French. That's, at least, the take of someone who studied history in France as a kid.. So it may not be completely unbiased.

"That time in Seattle... was a nightmare. I came out of it dead broke, without a house, without anything except a girlfriend and a knowledge of UNIX."
"Well, that's something," Avi says. "Normally those two are mutually exclusive."
-- Neal Stephenson, "Cryptonomicon"

 

[SF0751]

The term "freedom fries", I think, annoyed me the most. The word "french" in "french fries" refers to the verb "to french", which means "to cut in thin lengthwise strips before cooking" (Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary).

Susan
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls, and looks like work."
- Thomas A. Edison

 

[flapeyre]

IIRC, French fries actually originated in Belgium, and their popularity spread from there to France (this is from an old book I have somewhwere in my storage unit, The Dictionary of Misinformation. I think "french" as a verb for cutting into thin strips came after the fries.

Feles mala! Cur cista non uteris? Stramentum novum in ea posui!

 

[sha76]

OK, would somebody please clarify a couple of things for an English person please? Firstly, what's this whole "freedom" thing? Secondly, what is it you call French toast? If I asked for French toast I'd be expecting something crispy that I couldn't imagine being good with maple syrup!

"Your rock is eroding wrong." -Dogbert

 

[Dollie]

A few outside references:

Freedom Fries:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2842493.stm

French Toast:

http://www.ehow.com/how_13820_make-french-toast.html

Good thing it's almost lunchtime, now I'm hungry!