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Of sub-Saharan African descent; of or pertaining to people of sub-Saharan African descent; black.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Jewish, US, ethnic, not-comparable, offensive, slur
Examples
- 2012, Steve Stern, “The Tale of a Kite” in The Book of Mischief, Minneapolis: Graywolf Fress, p. 9, Ordinarily Boss Crump and his entourage [...] like to tour the individual shops, receiving the tributes his shvartze valet shleps out to a waiting limousine.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
A person of sub-Saharan African descent; a black person.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Jewish, US, ethnic, offensive, slur
Examples
- 1975, Robert Greenfield, The Spiritual Supermarket, New York: Saturday Review Press / E. P. Dutton & Co., p. 6, From the rabbi to the “shvartze,” the black man who turned on the synagogue’s lights on Saturdays, he was liked.
- 1988, Leon Uris, Mitla Pass, New York: Doubleday, Part 3, “Baltimore 1902-1913,” p. 270, [...] they were able to afford a full-time shvartze to keep the house.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Borrowed from Yiddish שוואַרצע (shvartse), feminine and plural form of שוואַרץ (shvarts, “black”). The generalization of the form was likely reinforced by the frequent use referring to black female domestic workers, although forms in -e/-a and -er would have merged in any case in a non-rhotic accent such as New York English. The context of domestic workers may also be that in which the word received a derogatory connotation, which of course it did not originally have (cf. German Schwarzer, the politically correct term for “black person”). Doublet of swart.
