Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
noun
Synonym of Latino, an inhabitant of Latin America or person of Latin American descent.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US, derogatory, ethnic, offensive, slur
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: spigotty, spiggoty, Latino
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Synonym of Italian, an inhabitant of Italy or person of Italian descent.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US, ethnic, slur, uncommon
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: Italian
Antonyms: none provided
adjective satellite
completely neat and clean
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Synonyms: immaculate, speckless, spick-and-span, spic-and-span, spick, spotless
Antonyms: none provided
noun
(ethnic slur) offensive term for persons of Latin American descent
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: spik, spick
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: Latin American, Latino
History
First attested in this spelling in the 1910s, from earlier spig, spiggoty, spikity, generally taken to derive from a (stereotype of a) Hispanic pronunciation of "(no) speak d(e) English" (especially as used by the laborers who dug the Panama Canal). There are also later (1960s) suggestions that the term referred instead to Italians and derives from spaghetti, but there is little to back this up.
