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You might want to reconsider using “welching” in this context. And don’t change it to “gyping”, either.
by drfuchs 8y ago
You might want to reconsider using “welching” in this context. And don’t change it to “gyping”, either.
- matt_the_bass 8y agoCare to clarify?
- warent 8y agoThey're old racist terms against Welsh and Romani people
- barking 8y agoI've read the Welsh being described as loquacious, dissemblers, immoral liars, stunted, bigoted, dark, ugly, pugnacious little trolls, but I cannot confirm its truth or otherwise.
- warent 8y agoWhat a repugnant and confused comment.
- sctb 8y agoPlease don't post troll comments here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- barking 8y agoThe insults against the Welsh in that post are rather notorious being from a column in the Sunday Times by the late A.A. Gill. A complaint about them was thrown out by the Commission for Racial Equality. Not everyone, but many people in the UK view insults against the other nations of the UK as banter, a wind-up probably because we're all part of the same greater in-group.
- matt_the_bass 8y agoOh! I never knew that. But it seems obvious now that you point this out.
- warent 8y agoI don't know why this comment is receiving downvotes. Both of those terms are pretty derogatory.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- barking 8y agoI'm fine with welching, thanks, been using it since long before anyone suggested to me it might have origins such as you infer. In fact since you're the first person I've known to be offended by it, then unless you're Welsh, I suggest you take a break from virtue signalling, it's really boring. Never heard the term gyping until you mentioned it though.
- drfuchs 8y agoSure, back when I was a kid, both were in common usage, and I used them freely and unknowingly into adulthood. So, I was quite taken aback to belatedly learn of their etymology three decades ago. I'm happy to hear your data point that "gyp" may already have fallen into disuse; or did you mean that you now intend to start using it now to signal your non-PC-ness? If so, others that I recall hearing in childhood but not lately, which you might also consider adopting, include: "indian-giver" (one who reneges), "jewing down" (bargaining excessively), "n....r work" (which seemed to mean "hanging around and not working" back in the day, but now Urban Dictionary has it as "easy, repetitive work").
- barking 8y agoOne thing we can be sure of is that trying to direct the language people use is a sure fire way to provoke a reaction. That goes for your ridiculous request for me to not use the word welch in the sense that i used it. If it had an association with the Welsh people that's long since been lost and I say that as someone who's lived on the border with Wales.
- rhcom2 8y agoI think most adults are fine with hearing, "hey that word comes from a bigoted place" and replying, "oh I had no idea, I'll try to use a different word in the future."
- barking 8y agoThat sounds like a very odd conversation between two adults to me. Sounds more like a mother teaching her child. The word welch is fine, the fact that it has historical origins makes the word even more interesting. It's survived until now and we're no more enlightened than previous generations who also used it. In fact thinking we are, as we do, is one of the conceits every period seems to have.
- mijoharas 8y agoI just now learnt the etymology for Welch. Thanks!
- sctb 8y agoWe detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18025244 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18025244 and marked it off-topic.