Geusenwort
As reappropriation (from the Netherlands : geuzennaam ) or spite word in is linguistics a word called, which was originally intended to insult a group of people, but was occupied by this with a consistently positive connotation.
The associated process of changing the meaning of an expression previously used as a pejorative through its appropriation as self- naming by the devalued target group is linguistically referred to in the Anglo-Saxon language area as reappropriation or reclamation .
Word origin
Geusen , in Dutch geuzen , is the name that the Dutch freedom fighters gave themselves during the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) after the French word gueux for beggar, with which they were condescendingly referred to by the Spanish nobility.
Examples
Examples of such swearwords positively reinterpreted as self-designations are expressions such as nerd , which is used for the music genre nerdcore , or Kanake , which inspired the Kanak Attak movement, and the word "pirate", which is often used in relation to software piracy , after which various pirate parties named themselves . Since the 2010s, the word bio -German has been used as a positive self-designation for German citizens without a migration background (predominantly in the right-wing spectrum), after the word had been used as a joke external name since the 1990s.
The term gay , also initially an insult and adapted in the gay movement of the 1970s, is now often used without derogatory connotation ; but she has u. a. In the youth language still a pejorative meaning, which has often been detached from the original meaning. The term queer, on the other hand, is used almost exclusively as a positive term.
Historically older examples of geuse words in religiously motivated movements are Protestant , Quaker , Jesuit , Marrane and also Christian , which was initially a word used disparagingly by outsiders ( Acts 11:26 GNB ) before it became a common self-designation. The naming of a political group as Tories (“the outlaws”) or Whigs (“the drovers”) was not a self-chosen name in the still ununified kingdom at the end of the 17th century . The terms Fauvism and Impressionism for directions in art were once meant as abuse.
Other examples of geuse words from other languages are the English word punk , Çapuling from Turkey and the New English Yankee . Some African-Americans (especially in hip-hop ) use the racist term nigger as a word of defiance to describe themselves. Another example is the London football club Tottenham Hotspur ; this traditionally has many Jewish players and supporters. He was therefore often referred to by his opponents with the often anti-Semitic word yids . Many fans of the club use this expression for themselves, although this is controversial in the Jewish community.
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ Van Dale Groot woordenboek van de Nederlandse taal, 13e herziene uitgave 1999
- ↑ Robin Brontsema: A Queer Revolution: Reconceptualizing the Debate Over Linguistic Reclamation. In: Colorado Research in Linguistics. Volume 17, No. 1, June 2004, doi: 10.25810 / dky3-zq57 , ISSN 1937-7029.
- ↑ Jody Daniel Skinner: Designations for the homosexual in German, Volume II, A dictionary. Die Blaue Eule, Essen 1999, ISBN 3-89206-903-4 (Diss. Univ. Koblenz-Landau 1998).
- ↑ See Jewish identity for the favorite club. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , April 30, 2019, accessed on April 11, 2020. See also World Jewish Congress condemns Tottenham fans' use of 'Yids' nickname. In: The Guardian , January 4, 2019, accessed April 11, 2020.