3 ms·

In German, it (schwarz) simply means 'black', with pretty much the same negative connotation it has in English when taking about persons.

• woodruffw 6y ago
  Yes, I know. The Yiddish is almost identical to the German, but has a significantly more negative connotation. (Edit: for an inverse example, consider "dreck": in Yiddish it just means "garbage," but my understanding is that it's significantly more offensive in most Germanic languages.)
  • Tomte 6y ago
    Yes, the German word in a neutral meaning means "dirt", and you can easily see how that would be offensive when used for a person. It's mostly used for stuff that makes you angry. https://www.dreckstool.de/hitlist https://www.dreckstool.de/hitlist is a prime example. (And you can see the effect of the home office, Microsoft Teams is new there.)
  • mhdhn 6y ago
    I disagree. Your meanings may be reasonable for Yinglish (Yiddish-derived English), but in Yiddish both the words shvartser and neger are neutral nouns. In addition drek is quite negative, meaning filth or shit.