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> Indian summer | late summer | This term infers that Indigenous people are chronically late. While it may be innocently used to describe a beautiful time of ye
by thomasahle 4y ago
> Indian summer | late summer | This term infers that Indigenous people are chronically late. While it may be innocently used to describe a beautiful time of year, it could have an unintended negative impact on those who hear it.
This one was surprising to me. I always assumed Indian summer was about summer in India lasting longer.
Apparently it really is about an American phenomenon https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_summer https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_summer . Though I don't see the negative reading on the Wikipedia page.
- dmitriid 4y agoIn Russian this is called "women's summer"
- trilbyglens 4y agoAnd in czech, "Babi Leto: or "granny summer", like the summer has gotten old, but still bakes you cookies.
- lo_zamoyski 4y agoUnsurprisingly, given the linguistic similarity, it's same in Polish ("babie lato"). But that's sexist and ageist, of course.
- dmitriid 4y agoYeah, same in Russian but I was too lazy to type it out on a mobile :D
- devmunchies 4y agoSpeaking of Indigenous Americans... the list has Brave (noun), with the reasoning: "This term perpetuates the stereotype of the "noble courageous savage," equating the Indigenous male as being less than a man." I actually think Brave ("the Braves") would have been a good name to refer to Native Americans. I don't feel like "noble, courageous" is much of a slur. It's pretty honorable in fact. I don't see how calling someone brave equates them with less than a man.
- thomasahle 4y agoI've never heard brave used as a noun. Can you give me an example? I guess I can see it used in an infantalising way.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- WalterBright 4y agoThe dictionary sez: "a North American Indian warrior"
- ancapsfascists 4y agoIt's often used in a wild west sorta way, "we were surrounded by braves". It's super outdated, for sure, as are most words that mean "my enemy's warriors".
- devmunchies 4y agoThe Atlanta Braves is a Major League Baseball team. Used like you would use “warrior”.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- robarr 4y agoIt was very common on old ‘cowboys and Indians’ movies’, at least on the old Spanish language translated reruns I watched as a kid: Some scout returned to some army fort and reported the presence of ‘500 braves’ coming from the north o hidden beyond some mountain or something like that.
- rsj_hn 4y agoexample: "We came across a camp with twenty braves." It's an unusual usage. Fun Fact: "brave" when referring to male warriors is assumed to come from Spanish bravo which means "courageous, untamed, savage". The association of courage and savagery comes from Spanish Renaissance culture and both meanings are meant simultaneously - that is, savages - those prone to violence -- were associated with courage and vice versa. Because English didn't have such an association, the word was repurposed to have two meanings and the second meaning fell into disuse after the 19th Century. Now in the 21st century, unless you are reading a book written in the 1800s, when you hear "brave" you can pretty much assume it's an adjective with the primary usage.
- Ste_Evans 4y ago
- Lazare 4y agoThey got the etymology wrong. There is no negative connotation.
- fleddr 4y agoSame for "burry the hatchet". That's actually a beautiful and creative expression to resolve a situation into peace. Cultural appropriation is such a fucking dumb concept. It is a positive. It enriches all of us.
- goatlover 4y agoAll of human history involves "cultural appropriation", since cultures are shared and shaped as different groups interact over time. Very few human groups remain so isolated that they're not influenced or don't influence other cultures.
- fleddr 4y agoExactly. We can now eat the best foods from all over the world, enjoy music, stories, art, all of it. How very cynical and destructive does one have to be to police that? This movement is miserable.
- fleddr 4y agoThe Dutch term for Indian Summer is "Old wives summer". Referring to old wives knitting clothes at that time of the year in preparation for winter, in correlation to another phenomenon in late summer: an explosion of spiders making cobwebs. Ableist, sexist, biologal-essentialism, so many red flags. Wait, red is a cultural appropriation as its differently used in different cultures. Anyway, Indian Summer referring to people being late is completely made-up.
- naravara 4y agoThis list doesn't really seem all that concerned with historical or etymological facts to be honest. Take a look at the entry for brownbag, for example.
- jjslocum3 4y agoActually, the way I learned it in probably the '80s was that during the colonial era in the Northeast US, the indigenous peoples (Indians) would resume attacks against frontier colonists during late-autumn thaws (cold weather typically preempted organized war parties).